ROLL OUT OF SMALL CELLS FOR 5G NETWORK

BY LEVERAGING STREET FURNITURE

- to Facilitate a Standard Approach for the Proliferation of Dense Small Cell Infrastructure
ROLL OUT OF SMALL CELLS FOR 5G NETWORK
BY LEVERAGING STREET FURNITURE

Document Number TEC 81001:2022; Release 1.0

Document Name Rollout of Small Cells for 5G Network by leveraging

Street Furniture

Date Monday, 28th March 2022

Objective Rollout of Small Cells for 5G Network by leveraging

Street Furniture to Facilitate a Standard Approach
for the Proliferation of Dense Small Cell Infrastructure

ISO 9001:2015

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS
DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS
TELECOMMUNICATION ENGINEERING CENTRE
ds jktkjeu] vkbZ-,-,l- Hkkjr ljdkj
lfpo lapkj ea=ky;
K. Rajaraman, I.A.S. nwjlapkj foHkkx
Secretary Government of India
Ministry of Communications
Department of Telecommunications

MESSAGE
I am extremely happy to note that the Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC)
is publishing a report on “Rollout of Small Cells for 5G Networks by leveraging Street
Furniture”.

Small cells are a critical component of 5G networks, helping to deliver the micro
capacity and coverage. 5G small cells wi ll enable the network to extend coverage
and to deliver lower latency, and also serve more users while maintaining multi-
gigabit performance. 5G is poised to change the way humans live, and would enable us
to control our surroundings as well as the various social and economic sectors which
operate around us.

This report is a good initiative and will certainly help various stakeholders to take
preparatory steps in their respective sectors for hassle-free rollout/ expansion of the 5G
network.

I appreciate the efforts put in by the Telecommunication Engineering Centre in bringing

out this report. I wish them success in all their endeavours.

(K. Rajaraman)

lapkj Hkou] 20] v’kksdk jksM] ubZ fnYyh&110001@ Sanchar Bhawan, 20, Ashoka Road, New Delhi -
110 001 Tel.: 011-23719898 Fax : 01 1 -23711514, E-mail : [email protected]
,-ds- frokjh Hkkjr ljdkj
lnL; ¼VsDuksykWth½ lapkj ea=ky;
A K Tiwari nwjlapkj foHkkx
Member (Technology) Government of India
Ministry of Communications
Department of Telecommunications

MESSAGE
I am pleased to note that the Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC) is bringing
out a report on ROLL OUT OF SMALL CELLS FOR 5G NETWORK BY LEVERAGING
STREET FURNITURE.

The ability to deliver multi-gigabit per second is where 5G small cells can really help
alleviate issues of densification so that multi-gigabit throughput can be maintained in
user-dense applications. In the 5G era, 5G small cells wi ll enable the network to extend
coverage and to deliver lower latency, and also serve more users while maintaining
multi-gigabit performance. Small cells will also deliver cost-effective capacity and coverage,
indoors and outdoors.

This Technical Report will help in the proliferation of seamless 5G networks by

leveraging the availability of street furniture in urban areas. This is an opportunity for
India not only to keep pace with the world but also to march ahead in development of
specifications for street infrastructure in 5G small cells.

I appreciate the efforts of Telecommunication Engineering Centre, especially its FN

Division for bringing out this well awaited technical report on small cell street furniture in
a very lucid manner. I wish them success in all their endeavours.

(A K Tiwari)
Member (Technology)
16.03.2022

lapkj Hkou] v’kksd jksM] ubZ fnYyh&110001

v’kksd dqekj feÙky Hkkjr ljdkj
lnL; ¼lsok,a½ lapkj ea=ky;
ASHOK KUMAR MITTAL nwjlapkj foHkkx
Member (Services) Government of India
Ministry of Communications
Department of Telecommunications

MESSAGE
I am happy to note that the Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC) is bringing
out a technical report on ROLL OUT OF SMALL CELLS FOR 5G ETWORK BY
LEVERAGING STREET FURNITURE .

Today’s mobile users want faster data speeds and more reliable service. The next
generation of wireless networks-5G-promises to deliver that, and much more. As the
number of mobile users and their demand for data rises, 5G will have to handle far more
traffic at much higher speeds than do the base stations that make up today ‘s cellular
networks . Need for improvement in efficiency in various socio-economic sectors has
been felt for a long time and to this effect, the proliferation and densification of 5G small
cells will give an impetus in this direction through a safe and secure high speed digital
communications infrastructure services.

This technical report on small cell street furniture by TEC is a good step in this
direction and will certainly help various stakeholders to take preparatory steps in their
respective sectors for expansion of the 5G network.

(Ashok Kumar Mittal)

Member (Services)
16.03.2022

lapkj Hkou] v’kksd jksM] ubZ fnYyh&110001

nhik R;kxh Hkkjr ljdkj
ofj"B mifuns’kd lapkj ea=ky;
Deepa Tyagi nwjlapkj foHkkx
Sr. Deputy Director General Government of India
Tele: 23320252 Fax: 23329088 Ministry of Communications
e-mail : srddg.tec@ gov.in Department of Telecommunications
www.tec.gov.in Telecommunication Engineering Centre

MESSAGE
TEC is a technical body representing the interest of the Department of Telecom, Government of
India. It provides technical support to DoT and prepares specifications and standards for Telecom
network equipment, services and interoperability. TEC has also been mandated to interact with multilateral
agencies like ITU, APT, ETSI, IEEE etc. for standardisation.
TEC proactively takes up development of specifications & standards based on studies and on
interaction with concerned stakeholders. Development of specifications & standards is a transparent
process with active participation of stakeholders. Certification of telecom products as per Essential
Requirements is also one of its major activities under MTCTE, which has been mandated by the
Government of India.
5G networks offer the potential to transform industrial sectors and deliver significant social and
economic benefits in India. With the next generation networks expected to be rolled out in the country
soon, the industry would need higher quantum of antennas and small cells that may fall within a range
of ten meters to several hundred metres and are mostly marked by short ranges. The need for small cells
will become even more critical in 5G networks due to the introduction of higher spectrum bands, which
necessitate denser network deployments to support larger traffic volumes per unit area.
Towards achieving this objective, TEC in consultation with stake-holders from government, industry,
and sector-users, took up study of the need and challenges in rolling out street infrastructure and small
cells for 5G. A committee was formed under the chairmanship of Deputy Director General (Future
Networks) to facilitate a standard approach for the proliferation of Dense Small Cell Infrastructure,
keeping in mind the best global practices.
This report titled “Rollout of Small Cells for 5G Network by Leveraging Street Furniture” by TEC is
a good step in this direction and will certainly help concerned stakeholders to take preparatory steps
in establishing 5G infrastructure in the country.
I express my sincere thanks to all the members of the committee as well as all the contributors
from industry whose enthusiastic support and untiring efforts have made it possible to bring out this
report timely.

(Deepa Tyagi)

xsV uacj 5] [kq’khZn yky Hkou] tuiFk] ubZ fnYyh&110001

vkj- ds- lDlsuk Hkkjr ljdkj
Hkkjr ljdkj ds csrkj lykgdkj lapkj ea=ky;
R. K. Saxena nwjlapkj foHkkx
Wireless Advisor to the Government of Government of India
India Ministry of Communications
Tel. 23755444 Department of Telecommunications
Fax: 23372141 Telecommunication Engineering Centre
E-mail : [email protected]

MESSAGE
I am extremely happy to note that the Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC)
is publishing a report on Rollout of Small Cells for 5G Networks by leveraging Street
Furniture.

5G is the fifth generation of cellular networks with speeds up to 100 times faster
than 4G. 5G is creating never-before-seen opportun ities for people and businesses due
to faster connectivity speeds, ultra-low latency and greater bandwidth in advancing
societies, transformi ng industries and dramatically enhancing day-to-day experiences.
Services that we used to see as futuristic , such as e-health, e-educations, connected
vehicles and traffic systems and advanced mobile cloud gaming have arrived, where 5G
could play a significant role. With 5G technology, we can help create smart cities with a
smarter, safer and more sustainable future. It has been the constant endeavour of WPC
Wing to make available adequate interference free Radio spectrum in the low, medium
and high frequency bands and Simplified SACFA procedures for 5G Small Cells towards
development and fast roll out of 5G mobile telecom services in the country and make it a
big success.

This report on 5G Small Cells by leveraging street furniture will lead to the densification
of small cells and further help in the cellular infrastructure to keep pace with the growing
demand for enhanced communication bandwidth and throughput.

I congratulate TEC in bringing out this report which I am sure will benefit all the
stakeholders and the public at large.

R. K. Saxena
IRRS
 PREFACE
5G is different from 4G in the sense that previous generations of cellular infrastructure
like 4G can no longer keep pace with the growing demand for large bandwidth and throughput
in order to achieve high speed data transmission.The macro towers that have been serving
fourth-generation long-term evolution (4G LTE) in the 2100 MHz band are not capable
enough to connect to the rapidly growing number of devices that each user is simultaneously
utilizing.The next generation of cellular technology i.e. 5G, represents a paradigm shift for
cellular infrastructure. With the advent of 5G, there will be a requirement to deploy Low
Power Base Stations (LPBTS) with 5G radios often called “small cells”.These 5G Small
Cells operate on higher frequency spectrum bands in the range, FR1 band (sub 6 GHz)
and FR2 band (mm Wave) that necessitate denser network deployments to support larger
traffic volumes per unit area. The number of 5G small cells will therefore be huge in
number as compared to the previous generation of 4G base station towers. These 5G
small cells have limited coverage of tens/hundreds of meters and are mostly marked by
short ranges and may however vary significantly depending on their use cases.

Considering the need for densification of the network, these small cells will be deployed
on various types of street furniture such as poles, street lights, traffic lights, bus stop
shelter, advertisement hoardings, billboards, etc. due to their low weight and small size.

It is imperative that standards/ policy for roll out of street infrastructure and small cells in
5G to facilitate a standard approach for the proliferation of Dense Small Cell Infrastructure
in country to unlock potential of existing national assets like street furniture be formulated.
That is why a committee has been constituted by the Secretary (Telecom) & Chairman
Digital Communication Commission.
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
A lot of effort has been made during the preparation of this report.The stakeholders from
different organizations with varied interests, policy bindings and obligations, were kind and
gracious enough to understand the need to come up on a common platform for formulating
a standard approach for the proliferation and densification of networks by deploying small
cells by utilizing the already available street furniture assets in the national interest. During
the course of the preparation and review of the draft report there were invaluable
contributions and also constructive criticism made by the stakeholders. It would not have
been possible to bring out this report without the support and help of all the stakeholders who
were a part of the committee. We would like to extend our sincere thanks and gratitude to
all of them for sparing their time and providing their valuable inputs and comments during
the several rounds of discussions and meetings, due to which this report could be brought
out in a very timely manner.

Our thanks and appreciations go to Shri Vikram Tiwathia, DDG (COAI), Shri S. Gopalan,
DDG Kerala LSA, DIPA, MoHUA, Ministry of Power, Central Electricity Authority, NOKIA,
Ericsson, and Qualcomm who have willingly helped with their valuable inputs and also for
reviewing the report. Our sincere acknowledgement also goes to Future Network (FN)
Division of TEC, DDG (SRI) DoT, DDG(AS) DoT, JWA WPC DoT, DDG/Mission Director
(National Broadband Mission), DDG(MT) TEC, DDG(R) TEC and NDMC.

The Committee held several round of discussions and meetings and had extensive
consultations with concerned stakeholders like COAI, DIPA, NDMC, Ministry of Power,
TCPO, MoHUA, Kerala LSA,TEC, OEMs (Nokia, Ericsson, Qualcomm), and inputs provided
by stakeholders were discussed in detail during the preparation of the Report.

We are highly indebted to Smt. Deepa Tyagi, Sr. DDG & Head, TEC for her guidance,
support and constant supervision as well as for providing necessary inputs which has
enabled us in finalizing the report in a timely manner.

The report has been prepared based on the inputs received from the stakeholders and
keeping in mind the best global practices. I sincerely hope this report will help in facilitating
a standard approach for the proliferation of Small Cells by utilizing street furniture and
related infrastructure assets that will facilitate network densification which is essential for
the deployment of 5G in the country.

Rajeev Kumar Tyagi

DDG (Future Networks), TEC
CONTENTS
Sr. No. Content Page No

1. Introduction 11
2. Background 12
3. Small Cell deployment scenarios and Use Cases 14
4. Functional and Technical Requirements 15
4.1 Small Cell Height Consideration 15
4.2 Technical Specifications including Physical 15
Dimensions, Weight
4.3 RF Frequencies of Operation 15
4.4 Backhaul Connectivity 16
4.5 RF Pattern Requirement 17
4.6 Power Supply and Battery Backup Requirements 17
4.7 Wind Speed/ wind load 18
4.8 Noise 18
5. Different scenarios of Small Cell deployment on Street Furniture 19
6. Recommendations 20
7. Further Challenges 28
Appendix F (I) 29
Appendix F (II) 31
Annexure A (Inputs from stakeholders) 32
COAI Inputs 32
DIPA Inputs 42
Ministry of Power Inputs 48
Central Electricity Authority Inputs 49
MoHUA Inputs 52
Annexure B 62
Glossary 66
References 67
Roll Out of Small Cells for 5G Network by Leveraging Street Furniture Committee Report

1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 With the advent of 5G, there will be a requirement to deploy Low Power Base
Transceiver Stations (LPBTS) with 5G radios often called “small cells’’ due to network
elements working on higher frequency spectrum bands that necessitate denser
network deployments to support larger traffic volumes per unit area. A small cell is
a cellular base station that transmits & receives 3GPP-defined Radio Frequency
(RF) signals with small power and small form factor. In most cases, it services a
small coverage area ranging from ten meters to several hundred meters in contrast
to a typical mobile macro cell that might have a range of up to several tens of
kilometers.

1.2 Various types of street furniture such as poles (street lights, electricity, traffic lights),
advertisement hoardings, bus shelters and towers have been identified by TRAI as
suitable national assets for deploying small cells6.

1.3 To have a harmonious and transparent approach for formulation of requisite policy/
standard for deployment of small cell infrastructure, a committee was constituted
by Secretary (Telecom), Department of Telecommunications, vide TEC Letter no
01-12/2021-FN/TEC dated 22.12.2021.

The ToR (Terms of Reference) for this committee are as below:

a) Standards are not limited to poles, side walls, hoardings, bus shelters, traffic
signals/ lights, metro rails structures, electric poles, roadsides/ campus
infrastructure.

b) Include the guidelines on minimum height of lower radiating part of Antenna

and minimum distance to areas accessible to the general public.

c) Any other aspects necessary to enable standardization of street infrastructure

for the proliferation of Dense Small Cell Infrastructure.

Telecommunication Engineering Centre 11

Roll Out of Small Cells for 5G Network by Leveraging Street Furniture Committee Report

2. BACKGR
CKGR OUND
GROUND
2.1 Previous generations of cellular infrastructure can no longer keep pace with the
growing demand for communication (data transmission) bandwidth and throughput.
The macro towers that have been serving 4G LTE networks cannot connect to the
rapidly growing number of devices that users are simultaneously utilizing.The next
generation of cellular technology, 5G, represents a paradigm shift for cellular
infrastructure.

2.2 As the roll-out of 5G continues, more and more radios need to be deployed and
networks will need to be densified. The Macro radios provide excellent coverage
and high capacity. However, in some cases, for example dense-urban locations
dominated by tall buildings, providing the necessary coverage can be challenging.
Similarly, where there are high numbers of mobile-users, such as busy city-centers
and transportation hubs, providing enough capacity needs from a single radio can
also be challenging. In these cases, outdoor small cells are ideal solutions for improved
coverage.These solutions include micro remote radio heads and high-capacity 5G
millimeter wave radios. Around 80% of mobile broadband traffic originates from
mobile users located indoors. However, ensuring good indoor coverage can also be
a challenge, especially as the higher frequencies used by 5G are more prone to
signal propagation limitations than previous generations of mobile technology.To
help overcome this, it is essential to consider indoor small cells as a deployment
option.

2.3 Mobile operators will look to small cell deployment technology to add data capacity
in areas of traffic congestion. This dense small cell network increases both the
radios per subscriber and provides subscribers improved signal quality for more
efficient data transfer.The shorter distance between radio sites also helps overcome
the short signal reach of higher frequency 5G radio spectrum. As a result, small
cells are becoming the leading solution in growing the data capacity of the network

Small cells are therefore required in the 5G network due to the following reasons:
a) Offloading: The Macro site of the area is getting congested and is unable to
serve the entire community of the area.

b) Capacity Enhancement:The macro site serving the building/ area is unable to

meet the capacity requirements of some parts of the building/ spot.

c) Low Coverage of Signal: Higher spectrum band.

12 Telecommunication Engineering Centre

Roll Out of Small Cells for 5G Network by Leveraging Street Furniture Committee Report

d) Indoor Coverage: In building solutions are essential for indoor coverage including
basements, underground metro tunnels etc.

2.4 Various small cell product types exist generally depending on, among other attributes,
their targeted coverage range (transmit power) and provided capacity.These small
cell variants include (but are not limited to) femtocells, picocells and microcells/
metrocells – broadly increasing in cell range from femtocells (the smallest) to
metrocells (the largest) as summarized below:

ƒ Femtocells
emtocells: A low-power, short range, self-contained small cells. Initially used
to describe consumer small cell units intended for residential homes, the term
has expanded to encompass higher capacity units for enterprise, rural and
metropolitan areas.

ƒ Picocells: Typically used to describe low power compact base stations, used in
enterprise or public indoor areas, the term is sometimes used to encompass
outdoor small cells as well.

ƒ Microcells: Typically used to describe an outdoor short-range base station

aimed at enhancing coverage for both indoor and outdoor users where macro
coverage is insufficient. Occasionally installed indoors to provide coverage and
capacity in areas above the scope of a picocells.

ƒ Metrocells
Metrocells: A recent term used to describe small cell technologies designed
for high capacity metropolitan areas. Such devices are typically installed on
building walls or street furniture (e.g. lampposts). This category can include
technologies such as femtocells, picocells and microcells where they meet
these deployment criteria.

Telecommunication Engineering Centre 13

Roll Out of Small Cells for 5G Network by Leveraging Street Furniture Committee Report

3. SMALL CELL DEPLOYMENT SCENARIOS AND USE CASES

DEPLO
Small cells generally support two lower coverage range base station classes defined
by 3GPP [TS38.104] which also determine the RF performance:

a) Medium-range base stations (derived from microcell scenarios) for outdoor small
cell deployment.

b) Local area base stations (derived from Pico cell scenarios) for indoor small
cells.

Small cells will play a critical role in a number of use cases in the 5G network.
Some of use cases of Small Cells are given below:

3.1 Large venues such as sports complexes or concert halls where thousands of users
need to connect within an enclosed area. In order to ensure all users, maintain
network coverage with good throughput, 5G small cells can be deployed in these
facilities and surrounding areas to provide extra capacity so that the influx of users
doesn’t exhaust the network.

3.2 Another use case is cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) enabling communications

between vehicles and between the car and infrastructure. Both capabilities are
necessary for autonomous automobiles. 5G small cells can be used to build
infrastructure that can handle massive communications needed for this application
where human lives can be at stake.

3.3 In smart cities, 5G small cells can be attached to traffic posts or light posts to
enable better coverage in metropolitan areas to ensure the network coverage is
there with the necessary throughput for smart city initiatives, analytics and
intelligence.

3.4 5G small cells can support residential or business network needs. In a smaller
community of users, that doesn’t justify the capital costs for a macrocell deployment,
a 5G small cell is a great alternative. Placing a 5G small cell near residential
buildings or homes, can ensure throughput is not degraded due to lack of coverage.

14 Telecommunication Engineering Centre

Roll Out of Small Cells for 5G Network by Leveraging Street Furniture Committee Report

4. FUNCTIONAL AND TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

4.1 SMALL CELL HEIGHT CONSIDERATION

CONSIDERATION

4.1.1 The Indian telecom network is witnessing introduction of Low Power Base Transceiver
Station (LP-BTS) having Effective Radiated Isotropic Power (EIRP) limited to 100
W. These BTSs, also called micro BTS, are likely to be placed both indoors and
outdoors and mounted on walls, rooftops, and on the various street furniture such
as roadside electric/telecom poles, bus stop shelters, etc. Since such BTSs are
small in size and radiate lower power vis-a-vis macro BTSs, they require different
treatment from the point of view of compliance requirements for EMF exposure
limits already laid down by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).The audit
requirement for these types of BTS is regulated as Simplified Assessment Criteria
(SAC).

The cell site should comply with TEC standard TEC 13019:2021, as may be amended
from time to time.

4.1.2 A format of the report to be filed for base station site based upon compliance by
Simplified Assessment Procedure Criteria on TEC adoption of ITU-T
Recommendation K.100 is placed at Appendix– F (1).

4.1.3 Restriction on minimum height of lowest radiating part of Antenna and minimum
distance to areas accessible to general public in the main lobe direction for Low
Power Base Station (EIRP d”100 Watts) is placed at Appendix- F (2).

4.2 TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS INCL

SPECIFICATIONS UDING PHY
INCLUDING SICAL DIMENSIONS
PHYSICAL DIMENSIONS,,
WEIGHT OF DIFFERENT CONFIGURA TIONS
CONFIGURATIONS

Typical configurations including weight, power consumption and dimensions are as

given below:

4.3 RF FREQUENCIES OF OPERATION

OPERATION

Small cell facilities shall only transmit or receive frequencies that are licensed/ to
be licensed by the Department of Telecommunications as defined by 3GPP

Telecommunication Engineering Centre 15

Roll Out of Small Cells for 5G Network by Leveraging Street Furniture Committee Report

TYPE OF COVERA
COVERAGE
VERAGE POWER TRANSMIT NUMBER BACKHAUL WEIGHT TEMP.
SMALL RADIUS CONSUM- POWER PER OF USERS TYPE APPROX.
APPRO
CELL PTION CARRIER PER (APPROX.)
(APPRO
TRANSMIT PA
PA
Indoor cells 10 – 50 m 50 – 100 W 100 – 250 mW 8 – 16 Wired, fiber < 2 kg +5°C to
+40°C
(indoor)
Pico cells 100 - 200 m 60 – 150 W 250 mW – 5 W 32 – 100 Wired,Fiber, 5 – 12 Kg -40 °C
Microwave to +55 °C
(outdoor)
+5°C to
+40°C
(indoor)
Micro cells 200 m – 1000 m 100 – 500 W 5W – 20W 200 Wired,fiber, 5 – 20 Kg -40 to
Microwave +55 °C
Street 250 m – 2500 m 200 - 500 W 20W 200 – 400 Wired,fiber, 6 – 20 Kg -40 to
micro Microwave +55 °C
High band 100 – 1000 m 200 – 500 W Total EIRP: 32 – 200 Wired, fiber 6 – 15 Kg -40 to
mm wave 53 – 62 dBm +55 °C
Base band NA 50 – 400 W Processing Configurable Wired,fiber, 5 – 20 Kg 0 – 55
unit unit Microwave degree
Source: Ericsson

[TS38.104], which are divided into the FR1 (sub-6 GHz) and FR2 (millimeter wave
or mmW) bands.

4.4 BACKHAUL CONNECTIVITY – OFC

CKHAUL OFC,, MICR
MICROOWAVE ETC.
ETC

5G is expected to provide “4A- anytime, anywhere, anyone, anything” connectivity,

which will take mobile data speeds to new limits and will support an immense
increase in connections. However, a good 5G network cannot be expected unless a
high capacity backhaul is in place.

Any of the following backhaul connectivity shall be available for Small Cell:

4.4.1 Optical Fiber

Fiber:: Today’s backhaul relies either on optical fibre or microwave radio
links. Fibre has limitless capacity but pulling fibre to every cell site is practically not
feasible due to cost, time and logistical challenges.

4.4.2 Microw
Microwaave: In comparison to fibre, microwaves are cheaper and scalable options
and can be deployed quickly. Moreover, the capacity of microwave links has evolved
gradually over the years to meet the demand of the new generations of networks.
Throughputs of 1-10 Gbps in microwave backhaul are now a reality.

16 Telecommunication Engineering Centre

Roll Out of Small Cells for 5G Network by Leveraging Street Furniture Committee Report

4.4.3 E & V Band Links: Conventionally, microwave backhaul has used frequencies from
the range of 6GHz to 42GHz. Regulators world over are opening higher frequency
bands, such as V-band (60GHz) and E-band (70/80GHz) to satisfy the high-capacity
access and backhaul requirements of future networks.

4.4.4 Access Integ

Integrrated Bac kbone (IAB): IAB is an important Rel-16 feature in 5G
Backbone
New Radio (NR) that enables rapid and cost-effective millimeter wave (mm Wave)
deployments through self-backhauling in the same spectrum. Wireless self-
backhauling uses the same wireless channel for coverage and backhaul connectivity
to other base stations, which leads to greater performance, more efficient use of
spectrum resources and lowers equipment costs, while also reducing the reliance
on the availability of wired backhaul at each access node location.

4.5 RF PATTERN REQUIREMENTS

PA

Directional or Omni-directional
Omni-directional: A directional antenna, could be mounted atop
or below the top of a street furniture structure, while an Omni-directional antenna,
would preferably be on the top because Omni-directional antenna requires 360-
degree radiation pattern in most cases so that there is no structural blockage of the
RF emission.

Directional Antenna Omini-directional Antenna

Source: WIA

Telecommunication Engineering Centre 17

Roll Out of Small Cells for 5G Network by Leveraging Street Furniture Committee Report

4.6 PO WER SUPPL

POWER Y AND B
SUPPLY ATTER
BA Y B
TTERY ACKUP REQUIREMENTS
BA

Street furniture assets to be used in a Small Cell network shall have power supply
and it shall consume low power.

In addition to the conventional power supply system (A.C / D.C sources), the Small
cell site shall have a fall back mechanism to work on battery backup (preferably Li-
ion)/ suitable solar based power solution in the absence of conventional AC supply.

There shall be proper arrangements for cooling and heat dissipation requirements.

4.6.1 Both Radio and Baseband require DC -48V supply. Hence Battery and Power-plant
will be required to convert from AC supply. Indoor/Outdoor Power Pack (PP) and
Batteries (preferably Li-ion) shall be used as per site requirements.

4.7 WIND SPEED/ WIND LOAD

LO

The street furniture as used for the placement of Small Cell, shall be able to
withstand a predefined applicable wind velocity in that area under maximum
permissible loading.

4.8 NOISE

The Small Cell site shall not create noise greater than 65 dBA measured at 25 feet
from the device location7.

18 Telecommunication Engineering Centre

Roll Out of Small Cells for 5G Network by Leveraging Street Furniture Committee Report

5. DIFFERENT SCENARIOS OF SMALL CELL DEPLOYMENT

DEPLO
ON STREET FURNITURE1
a) Small cell placed on streetlight

b) R adiocommunica
Radiocommunica tions equipment on street road g
adiocommunications antr
gantr
antryy

c) Small cell on street road signage

d) Installation on Bus Shelter

Telecommunication Engineering Centre 19

Roll Out of Small Cells for 5G Network by Leveraging Street Furniture Committee Report

6 . RECOMMENDATIONS
RECOMMENDA
Inputs from stakeholders are available at Annexure-A. Based on inputs and discussions/
deliberations, the following are the recommendations of the committee:

1. LOW PO WER SMALL CELL SPECIFICA

POWER TIONS
SPECIFICATIONS

Minimum height of lowest radiating part of antenna & minimum distance to areas
accessible to general public in the main lobe direction for Low Power BTS (LPBTS)
shall be as per TEC specifications No.TEC 13019:2021 applicable for up to 100W.

The Simplified Assessment Procedure criteria based on ITU-T Recommendation K.100

(TEC Reference No.TEC 13019:2021) which defines antenna installation criteria such
as mounting height, main lobe direction and distance to other ambient sources is
available for frequencies from 400 MHz up to 2000 MHz only (EIRPd”100 Watts).

In order to accommodate higher EIRP and to include frequencies > 2GHz,

the Simplified Assessment Procedure criteria needs to be considered for
revision. While doing so
revision. so,, the units ffor
or EIRP in Anne xure (F1) and Anne
Annexure xure
Annexure
- F (2) shall be maintained same to a void confusion. How
av Howeever
er,, suc
suchh high
EIRP small cells ma
mayy require EMR testing / audit. “

The 5G Small Cells would come at higher frequencies and separate criteria is required
for FR1 and FR2 Bands in view of the much higher path loss at higher frequencies.
Due to this higher path loss, the EIRP required is higher while the actual received
power is much lower in areas of public access.

2. ONE-TIME APPR
APPROOVAL AND ONE-TIME PERMISSION

Municipal Corporations, PWD, Central agencies [DISCOMs, Ministry of Defense

(Cantonment Board), MoCA (Airport Authority of India - Airports), Metro Authority
(Metro Stations/Pillars), MoHUA, CPWD, Department of Post] need to provide approvals/
permissions in reasonable time period w.r.t. deployment of small cells. Also, there is a
need for a bulk/one-time approval for the small cells by the agencies. All infrastructure
owning agencies shall be required to have their web portal for processing online
applications for small cell deployment cases and their disposal..

SOME ST ATES ALREAD

STA ALREADYY HAVE R
HAVE ROOW PORTALS
PORTALS.. LSAs MAY COORDINA
MAY COORDINATE TE
WITH INFRASTR UCTURE PR
INFRASTRUCTURE PRO OVIDING AGENCIES IN THEIR AREAS AND
HELP THEM TO DEVEL OP THEIR WEB POR
DEVELOP PORTTALS OR USE ST ATES’ R
STA ROOW
PORTALS
PORTALS,, IF NOT DONE YET
NOT YET..

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Roll Out of Small Cells for 5G Network by Leveraging Street Furniture Committee Report

3. UNIFORM ROW RULES

There should be a uniform implementation of RoW rules across states, union territories
and municipal bodies. The Indian Telegraph Right of Way Rules 2016, should be
amended to incorporate provisions for small cells on Street Furniture on the following
issues:

a) Applications must be acted on no later than 60 days for requests to collocate

equipment and 90 days for other requests.

b) Fees must be publicly disclosed, competitively neutral, technology neutral, non-

discriminatory and based on actual and direct costs (including, for example, costs
for maintenance and inspections).

c) Permits must be approved or denied on publicly available criteria that are reasonable,
objective, and non-discriminatory.

d) Small cell applications may be denied or regulated for objective and reasonable
structural engineering standards, safety requirements or aesthetic or concealment
requirements.

e) There is a need to look into a common power consumption bill for a large number
of small cell sites which are going to be installed on street furniture. A lot of effort
will be wasted if a bill is issued on a pole by pole basis.

f) Both street level and in-building requirements:Any policy w.r.t. small cell deployment
should consider both street level and the in-building coverage and requirements.

g) Infrastructure sharing should be encouraged on an open access basis to all mobile

network operators who are active in that location.This is similar to the Small-Cell-
as-a-Service (ScaaS) cited by TRAI.

h) There is a need to bring all State EBs on common platform for uniformity in
process.

i) The permission process has to be one time. ROW for Areal Fiber laying/ installation
of small cells should done on a one-time basis by the concerned authorities
across the complete city.

j) Load calculation cannot be done for every pole on which a small cell is to be
deployed. It is suggested that power department needs to make a one-time
calculation for each type of pole and come up with a model depending upon the

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Roll Out of Small Cells for 5G Network by Leveraging Street Furniture Committee Report

pole size/dimension and give approval.

k) To speed up the approval process, for site locations, where electricity authorities,
metro rail corporations or other government organizations are permitting
installations of small cells & telecom infrastructure, further permission from
Municipal Corporation and local bodies need not be mandated.

l) There shall be Grid availability for electrical power supply by electricity boards for
small cells.

m) RoW rules should allow Aerial Fiber on TSP owned poles and Energy Board (EB)
poles.

n) RoW rules should do away with the collection of all charges/ minimize charges
levied per KM.

o) DISCOMs should permit TSPs use of existing/upcoming EB Poles/Electricity Poles

or install their own poles to carry out Aerial Fibre cabling.

4. MORE INITIATIVES REQUIRED BY DISCOMS

INITIATIVES

Initiative like one taken by the KSEB w.r.t. deployment of the small cells and the aerial
fiber on their electricity poles need to be explored across the country with other
DISCOMs as well.

Any state electricity board offering their infrastructure should consider the requirement
of providing their assets in a manner that all licensees have an equal opportunity for
installation of small cell infrastructure. For e.g., if the feasibility of the asset of an EB
is only able to accommodate 1 TSPs, they should consider giving 1 out of 4 poles to
each TSP, if there are 4 applicant TSPs.

SIMILAR PIL OTS AS BEING DONE WITH KSEB ALSO NEED TO BE

PILO
INITIATED WITH O
INITIATED THER DISCOMS BY DIFFERENT LSAs
OTHER LSAs..

5. IN-BUILDING CO
IN-BUILDING VERA
COVERAGE AND CAP
VERAGE ACITY
CAPA

MOHUA has released recommendations on provisions for In-Building Solutions for

Telecom Infrastructure as Addendum to Model Building Bye-Laws- 2016. The
recommendations are given in Annexure-A (V)
Annexure-A

GIS based Master Plan is being prepared under MoHUA which maps the alignment of
utility poles. This will facilitate the location for installation of small cells. A number of

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cities are now going for drone based mapping. It will help in quickly accessing where
the small cell infra can be located.

6. POWER REQUIREMENTS

Power supply must be made available continuously for the small cells.There should be
arrangements for providing backup supply provision at the street furniture sites.

Table at clause 4.2 shows the multiple small-cell deployment options along with
Technical details like output power, tech supported, weight, power consumptions, etc.
Actual power consumption depends upon the actual scenario & solution to be deployed.

Uninterrupted stable AC/DC power would be required along with power supply on
poles for deployment of communication equipment.

For AC products: On- Line UPS is required with back up as per need of TSP.

For DC products: Power solutions with rectifier and Li ON battery with back-up as
per need of TSP.

Typical weights in dimensions of different parts of power supply are as below:

Source: NOKIA

Typical 4-6 hrs. of power back-up has to be considered depending upon the EB
availability & TSP requirements.

7. SECURITY ASPECT

Security aspects was also considered by the Committee as the theft of the Telecom
Infrastructure i.e. batteries, cable, fibre etc. are quite prevalent.

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Roll Out of Small Cells for 5G Network by Leveraging Street Furniture Committee Report

Causing damage to telecom property may considered to be included under cognizable

offense.

8. ACCESS AND BACKHA

BA UL REQUIREMENTS
CKHAUL

The committee recognizes the importance of the Access and Backhaul requirements
for deployment of small cells for 5G services. And the committee noted the options
that can be used for small cells i.e. Fiber and E & V band (fiber in the air). Early
allocation of E & V bands to TSPs for access and backhaul purposes to augment
capacities and improve site planning is recommended.

9. SACF
SACF A CLEARANCE
CFA

The requirement of SACFA clearance for LP-BTS small cells shall be as per the
recommendation of the Committee constituted by Secretary (T) on simplification of
SACFA Clearance process for small cells, placed at Annexure-B
Annexure-B
xure-B.

10. COMMON DUCT

Provisions for having common duct in the green field projects such as Greater Noida,
Raipur etc. need to be ensured. All smart city projects can be mandated to have such
features.

11. BR
BROOADB AND READINESS INDEX (BRI OF ST
ADBAND ATES/UTS
STA

DoT may bring out an annual Broadband Readiness Index (BRI) report to promote
competition amongst States/UTs to develop their digital infrastructure.

12. DESIGN OF NEW STREET INFRASTRUCTURE

Some of the Smart cities (Vizag, Bhopal), NDMC have been deploying well designed
street furniture where in small cells installation has been facilitated/is in-built. It is
recommended that all smart cities where it is planned to install new/replace old street
infrastructure should ab- initio have these design to have plug and play capability to
install small cell radios and power supply.

It is recommended that a Hackathon be conducted for the design of small

cells and street fur niture in the Indian en
furniture vironment. This ma
environment. mayy in
invvolv
olvee the
Smar
Smartt Cities also
also.. A b udg
budg et of INR 10 crores ma
udget y be considered ffor
may or this
work.

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Roll Out of Small Cells for 5G Network by Leveraging Street Furniture Committee Report

13. KSEB ELECTRIC POLE

Pre-stressed Cement Concrete (PSC) poles are predominantly used for drawing the
network. 9m poles with designed working load of 200 kg is used for HT lines and 8m
poles with designed working load of 140 kg is widely used for drawing LT lines. KSEB
is also procuring 8m poles with designed working load of 200 kg. Earlier 7 m poles
were also used for constructing LT service lines, but mostly along private properties.
7m poles are not used since the last few years.

MINIMUM CLEARANCES REQUIRED:

a) Minimum ground clearance (distance from ground level to lowest conductor / cable)
required is 3.05 m along the street and 5.8m across the street.
b) Minimum Clearance required between a communication cable and electric line / between
an HT & LT line is 1.2m.
c) Minimum clearance required between two conductors is 30 cm.
d) In PSC poles, the top most cross arm (the structure where conductors are mounted)
will be placed at 25 to 80 cm from top of the pole.

Ef
Efffecti
ectivve Height a
att whic
whichh the Top of Telecom Equipment can be installed

In normal case the available height on 8m pole will be 4.1m (if Double Circuit LT
feeder is present) to 4.4m (LT single circuit; in 9m pole with single circuit HT & LT
feeder, available height will be 4.2m)

Proof of Concept (PoC) based upon the test results car

(PoC) ried out
carried
b y TSPs/OEMs in K er
Ker ala LSA
erala

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Roll Out of Small Cells for 5G Network by Leveraging Street Furniture Committee Report

Height, weight and power requirement for 5G small cell based upon
the P oC car
PoC ried out b
carried byy TSPs/OEMs in K er
Ker ala LSA
erala

Wind load aspect has not yet been decided by KSEB and is presently under
consideration.

14. The smart cell equipment design has to match with the design of the poles so that it
looks aesthetic.

15. GPS tracking of the small cell infra may be considered by TSPs in order to prevent
theft.

16. Wind Speed/ Wing load: Pole/Street furniture should be able to support city as well as
telecom standards in India, such as wind load, climate, aesthetic etc.

17. There should be a Standard Operating Procedure for Installation as well as carrying
out Maintenance of the small sell equipment installed on the street furniture without
causing disturbance to the other utilities already present.

18. OTHER GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

a) AESTHETICS: In all cases, the placement of small cells should be consistent with
existing structures and aesthetics, in harmony with the surroundings, and as unobtrusive
as possible. For example, in areas with decorative light poles, small cells on light poles
must be consistent with the existing decorative light poles, calling for a design that is
comparable in scale and incorporates the design characteristics of those poles.

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Roll Out of Small Cells for 5G Network by Leveraging Street Furniture Committee Report

b) INTERNAL INST ALLS: The camouflaging material (to cover RF equipment) should
INSTALLS:
have RF transparency with minimum attenuation covering all the radio frequency
bands available in India.The antenna shall be contained in a cantenna which a structural,
weatherproof enclosure that protects an antenna, and any other equipment shall be
contained in an equipment cabinet, unless the visual impact can otherwise be
camouflaged by its location on the pole.

c) EXTERNAL SHR OUDING

SHROUDING
OUDING: The antenna shall be contained in a cantenna and any
other equipment shall be contained in an equipment cabinet, unless the visual impact
can otherwise be reduced by its location on the pole.

d) HARD
HARDW WARE ATT ACHMENT
TTACHMENT:: All hardware attachments should be hidden. Welding
onto existing equipment is not permitted.

e) COL OR: All equipment should be painted to match pole aesthetics.The paint material
COLOR:
(to cover the RF section) should comply with RF /Telecom requirements.

f ) CABLES
CABLES: All cables should be clearly labeled for future identification.

g) CANTENNAS: Cantenna must be mounted directly on top of the pole, unless a side
arm installation is required by a pole owner.

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Roll Out of Small Cells for 5G Network by Leveraging Street Furniture Committee Report

7. FURTHER CHALLENGES
FURTHER
a) It is mentioned that 5G cells would require a DC power supply of 48V for which a
battery system would also be installed along with each cell at base of the pole.
Hence, LT supply to each 5G unit cell has to be provided by the local DISCOMs.The
release of such a large number of power connections to all cells need the intervention
of the respective state regulatory commission for billing purposes.The respective
State commission would have to decide whether the collective load of all 5G cells in
one area may be treated as one connection or each cell would be treated as a
separate electricity connection.

b) In case DISCOMs take up the replacement of OH lines into UG cables in future,

questions on the responsibility for relocation may arise. Further, responsibilities for
damage/vandalism, if any of 5G cells would need to be delineated.

c) Stability issues such as Electric poles strength to bear the load as well as possibilities
of toppling of the poles would depend on the overall offsets, weight and envelope of
the 5G Cell infrastructure. Therefore, COAI may provide suitable envelope, max
offsets and maximum weights possible so that the stability of poles can be adjusted.

d) It is suggested by Ministry of Power that a task force composed of officers of DOT,

COAI and CEA may look into the matter of regulations and stability of electric
poles comprehensively before decisions of installation of 5G Infrastructure are
taken by the Ministry of Power.

e) It may be difficult to get permission for aerial cable in the NDMC area.

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APPENDIX –F (1)

Compliance by Simplified Assessment Procedure Criteria based on TEC adoption of ITU-

T Recommendation K.100. Simplified assessment procedures to be used for single
transmitter are provided to identify a base station which is known to be in compliance with
relevant exposure limits without the necessity of following the general or comprehensive
exposure assessment processes.This is relevant, for example because of the low power
transmitted or because of the position of the antennas of base station with respect to the
public.

The simplified assessment procedures are based on knowledge of the equivalent isotropic
radiated power (EIRP), and depending on the EIRP level, antenna installation characteristics
such as mounting height, main lobe direction and distance to other ambient sources.

FORMAT FOR SIMPLIFIED ASSESSMENT PR

FORMAT OCEDURE FOR SELF
PROCEDURE
CER TIFICA
CERTIFICA TION AS PER ITU-T RECOMMEND
TIFICATION RECOMMENDAATION K.100

SITE D ATA & TECHNICAL P

DA ARAMETERS
PARAMETERS
(Applicable only if no other Base Station within 5 * Dm)

Name of TSP :

Name of the Base Station :

Base Station ID :

SR. NO
NO.. I T E M UNITS SITE D
DAATA
1 Site ID
2 Date of Commissioning
3 Address
4 Lat / Long (minimum 5 decimal places) Deg
5 Make and model of Antenna/Base Station
6 System Tec hnolo
echnolo gy (GSM/CDMA/UMTS/L
hnology TE-FDD/TDD)
(GSM/CDMA/UMTS/LTE-FDD/TDD)
7 Base Channel Frequencies (BCCH) (GSM) / CPICH / PBCH and
Frequencies (MHz)
Center Frequency (UMTS/L
Frequency TE)
(UMTS/LTE)
8 Max No
No.. of Car rier
Carrier
rierss in the sector (For GSM) / MIMO configur
(For ation
configura
or L
(For
(F TE)
LTE)
9 Antenna Tilt Deg
10 Antenna Gain dBi
11 Tx Pow
Pow er
ower (dBm)

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Roll Out of Small Cells for 5G Network by Leveraging Street Furniture Committee Report

SR. NO
NO.. I T E M UNITS SITE D
DAATA
12 EIRP (dBm)
13 Pole/w all Height
ole/wall (m)
14 Height of low est par t of rradia
lowest adia ting antenna(s) from public
adiating (m)
accessible area
15 Computed value of Hm # (m)

16 Computed value of Dm # (m)

# In case of EIRP > 2 Watts and d” 100 Watts, the Hm and Dm values as per Table in
Appendix-F(2)

It is to cer tify tha

certify thatt no other RF sources with EIRP a bo
abo ve 100 W is loca
bov ted within
located
a distance of 5 Dm metres in the main lobe direction.

Signa ture of authoriz

Signature ed representa
authorized ti
representati ve of TSP
tiv
Name, Designation and Date:

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APPENDIX-F (2)

Restriction on minimum height of low est rradia

lowest adia ting par
adiating partt of Antenna and minimum
distance to areas accessible to general public in the main lobe direction for Low
Pow
owerer Base Sta tion (EIRP <100 W
Station Waa tts).

For frequencies between 400 MHz and 2000 MHz:

between

Where
Where::

f is the frequency, in megahertz, of operation of the Base Station.

Asl is the side lobe suppression value
a is the downtilt in radians (both electrical and mechanical)
qbw is the vertical half power beamwidth in radians.

A realistic choice of parameters for sector-coverage antennas (qbw = p/12, a = p/12, and
Asl = 0.05).

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ANNEXURE-A

(I) COAI INPUTS ON SMALL CELLS

COAI
BACKGR
CKGR OUND
GROUND

With the advent of 5G, there will be requirement to deploy Low Power Base Stations
(LPBTS)[1] with 5G radios often called “small cells” due to network elements working on
higher frequency spectrum bands, which have limited coverage. Considering the need for
densification of the network,TRAI has identified various types of street furniture such as
poles (- street lights, electricity, traffic lights), advertisement hoardings, bus shelters and
towers as suitable national assets for deploying small cells. Some of Industry inputs on
the Issue are as given below:

1) TYPE OF 5G SMALL CELLS - INTEGRATED EQPT/ DISTRIB

INTEGRATED UTED ANTENNA
DISTRIBUTED
FOR SMALL CELLS:

a) Small cells provide a small radio footprint, which can range from 10 meters within
urban and in-building locations to 2 km for a rural location.

b) Picocells and microcells can also have a range of a few hundred meters to a few
kilometers, but they differ from femtocells in that they do not always have self-
organizing and self-management capabilities.

Small cells are available for a wide range of air interfaces including GSM, CDMA2000,
TD-SCDMA, W-CDMA, LTE, WiMax and 5G.

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2) WHY SMALL CELLS

a) Of floading: The Macro site of the area is getting congested and is unable to
Offloading:
serve the entire community of the area.
b) Ca pacity used: Shared Capacity: - The site serving the building/area is unable to
Capacity
meet the capacity of the part of the building/spot.
c) Low Cover
Cov age of Signal
era Signal: Higher spectrum band.
d) Indoor Cover
Coveraage: In building solution essential for indoor coverage including
basement

3) TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS INCL

SPECIFICATIONS UDING PHY
INCLUDING SICAL DIMENSIONS
PHYSICAL DIMENSIONS,,
WEIGHT OF DIFFERENT CONFIGURA TIONS
CONFIGURATIONS

The key configurations including weight, power consumption and dimensions are as
given below:

S Type Output Weight Pow er

ower Pow er Supply
ower Dimensions Temp
No Pow er
ower consumption
Typical
1 mm Wave 55dBm EIRP 10Kg 210W 85 - 265VAC 325x270x115MM -40 to
-40.5 -57VDC +55 C
2 Micro RRH 4x5 W - 6kg – 110W 80-276 VAC 295X270X55MM -40 to
4x20 W 12 Kg -40-57VDC 245X345X130MM +55 C
3 Flexi Zone 2x5W 6kg - 84W - 90-264VAC 247x327x120MM -40 to
Micro 7kg 125W +55 C
4 Flexi Zone 2 x 20 W 12Kg 285 W 90-264VAC 220x380x162MM -40 to
Mini Macro +55 C
Base band
5 ASOE NA 10Kg 200W -48VDC 482.5x50x463MM -40 to
+55 C
Source: Nokia

4) BACKHAUL CONNECTIVITY – OFC

CKHAUL OFC,, MICR
MICROOWAVE, ETC
ETC

a) 5G is expected to provide “4A- anytime, anywhere, anyone, anything” connectivity,

which will take mobile data speeds to new limits and will support an immense
increase in connections. However, a good 5G network cannot be expected unless
a high capacity backhaul is not in place.
b) Optical fiber
fiber:: Today’s backhaul relies either on optical fibre or microwave radio
links. Fibre has limitless capacity but pulling fibre to every cell site is practically
not feasible due to cost, time and logistical challenges.

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c) Microw
Microwa ave: In comparison to fibre, microwave is cheaper, scalable option and
can be deployed quickly. Moreover, capacity of microwave link has evolved gradually
over the years to meet the demand of the new generations of networks.Throughputs
of 1-10 Gbps in microwave backhaul are now a reality.

d) E & V band: Conventionally, microwave backhaul has used frequencies from the
range of 6GHz to 42GHz. Regulators world over are opening higher frequency
bands, such as V-band (60GHz) and E-band (70/80GHz) to satisfy the high-capacity
backhaul requirements of future networks. According to Ericsson, E-band will
satisfy the high-capacity demands of today’s networks. Moreover, it will be suitable
during the coming years when 5G is rolled out.

Thus, it is suggested that E & V band (which provides capacity akin to fiber in the air)
should be allocated for the backhaul services for Small Cells.

5) HEIGHT & POWER FOR DIFFERENT FREQUENCY VIS A VIS CO

POWER VERA
COVERAGE
VERAGE
– TSP REQUIREMENTS

Please refer to the height and power specification’s issued by DoT pertaining to Low
Power BTS. Link:: https://tec.gov.in/public/pdf/Whatsnew/Low%20Power%20BTS.pdf

Further,, following are some of the requirements highlighted by our member TSPs w.r.t
deployment of the Small Cells on the Poles:

a) HEIGHT
HEIGHT:: At least 9-meter AGL (antenna height above ground level) is required
to cover 250m cell radius of 5G coverage. But KSEB poles are having height from
9-12 meter. Also, adequate separation should be maintained between HT lines
and the radio equipment.

b) WEIGHT/DIMENSIONS: One 5G Radio with Clip-on antenna weighs around

12 kg.This will require 2-3 Radios to cover a location. Additionally, one Baseband
will be required at the base of the Tower which will be around 23 kg

ITEM WIDTH(MM) HEIGHT(MM) DEPTH(MM)

5G Radio 245 295 110

Baseband 487 354 605

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Baseband 5G Radio

c) PO WER: Both Radio and Baseband require DC -48V supply. Hence Battery (2
POWER:
Hrs backup, 150 AH/4*12V) and Power-plant will be required to convert from AC
supply. PP and Batteries totally weighs around 30 kg.This can be mounted at base
of Electric Pole

Per R adio P
Radio Pow er:: 200W
ower
ow er 200W,, BBU P
BBU ow
Pow er:: 300W
er
ower

6) REGULATIONS FOR USE OF STREET FURNITURE / ELECTRIC POSTS –

REGULATIONS
INTERNATIONAL PRA
INTERNATIONAL CTICES
PRACTICES

Internationally, a lot of work is being done to address the small cell deployment related
issues and foster 5G development. Some of the best practices are as given below:

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a) HONG K ONG
KONG
ONG: As facilitating measures for 5G deployment, Office of the
Communications Authority, Hong Kong, issued guidelines on the use of street furniture
such as sheltered bus stops, public payphone kiosks and smart lampposts for installation
of 5G Radio Base Stations in 2019-2020.

b) JAP AN: In Japan, operators are permitted to install 5G base stations on 208,000
APAN:
traffic lights across the country. [2] Moreover, the Japanese government has proposed
that the costs of using the traffic lights for 5G deployments be shared between operators
and local administrations.

c) EU: In 2020, the EU Commission released its implementing regulation on small-area

wireless access points.The Regulation provides for the following:

i) Specifies the physical and technical characteristics of small cells for 5G networks;
ii) Aims to help simplify and accelerate 5G network installations, which should be
facilitated through a permit-exempt deployment regime, while ensuring that
national authorities keep oversight.
iii) Lays out the specifications for a coherent and integrated installation, while
providing national authorities with the means to oversee deployment of small
cells.
iv) Provides that small antenna should be exempted from any individual town planning
permit or other individual prior permits.
v) Allows for broader national measures in support of straightforward small cell
deployment.

d) EGYPT
EGYPT:: In Egypt, no building permits are required for small cell deployments. The
only regulatory approval required after installation is the measurement of RF exposure.
This occurs only once for the lifetime of the site whereas for a macro cell inspections
are conducted at least every two years.

e) SINGAPORE: The Singapore regulator Infocomm Media Development Authority

(IMDA) provides a Code of Practice for Info-communication Facilities in Buildings
(COPIF) specifying the duties of building owners and developers to provide adequate
space, facilities, and access for telecom licensees to provide their services.These are
typically a) the rooftop spaces reserved for telecom equipment to be provided to
network operators by building developers and owners at no additional cost.

f ) UK: The UK’s Electronic Communications Code facilitates operators’ access to macro
and small cell infrastructure on public and private land.

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g) AUSTRALIA: In Australia, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA)

and the Department of Communications have put policies to facilitate small cell
deployments including reductions in planning requirements for small cell deployments
in the public space, and the removal of barriers between license types to facilitate the
re-allocation of incumbent spectrum holders.

h) UNITED ST STAATES OF AMERICA: In 2018, the FCC issued guidelines which covers
fees, aesthetics, and shot clocks requirements etc. Under this state/local fees were
rationalized and state and local governments have 60 days to decide applications for
existing infrastructure and 90 days for all other small cell wireless applications.

7) DEPLOYMENT OF AERIAL FIBER:

DEPLO

a) WHY AERIAL?
i) Cost-effective solution in rural or low-density areas.
ii) Ground may be undulating, rocky or both, making burying cable more difficult.
iii) Aerial cable is typically faster and less expensive to deploy than digging
Environment challenges like lack of an underground telecom duct network.
iv) Enables the re-use of existing poles, which helps to reduce installation costs and
speeds up deployments.
b) KEY AERIAL FIBER DEPLOYMENT CONSIDERA
DEPLO TION
CONSIDERATION
i) To make an amendment in the existing State RoW rules to include Aerial Fiber
on TSP owned poles and Energy Board (EB) poles.
ii) Do away with the collection of all charges/ minimize charges levied per KM.
iii) To issue necessary directions to DISCOMs to permit TSPs use of existing/
upcoming EB Poles/Electricity Poles or install their own’ poles to carry OFC/
Aerial cabling
iv) To rationalize the charges for laying of Aerial OFC as INR 100/- per pole per
annum in Urban areas and INR 50/- per pole per annum in Rural areas.

8) ENSURING COMPLIANCE WITH EMR GUIDELINES CONSER

CONSERVVATIVE RF-
EMF EXPOSURE LIMITS

The requirement for compliance assessment of small cells in terms of RF-EMF exposure
limits may present one of the most significant barriers for rapid and sustainable network
densification.This is due to the relatively larger number of small cell sites (both outdoor

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and indoor) that may need to undergo the assessment.Typically, small cells have a relatively
small coverage footprint and operate with aggressive interference management and energy
saving mechanisms (e.g. putting idle small cells to sleep). All these factors mean that
small cells usually operate well below their peak transmit powers. Therefore, RM-EMF
compliance boundaries typically evaluated based on peak transmit powers create overly
conservative RF-EMF limits that constrain the density of small cell deployments. For
facilitating the network densification, we suggest that the EMF exposure levels recently
reviewed and issued by ICNIRP in 2020 be adopted in India.

9) CHALLENGES W.R.T DEPL

W.R.T OYMENT OF SMALL CELLS
DEPLO

Oper
Operaa tional and Tec hnical Challeng
echnical es
Challenges

a) There should be adequate separation between electric HT lines and radio

equipment to avoid magnetic interference.This can lower the AGL requirement
b) Maintenance of radio at tower top will be difficult due to the danger of HT electric
lines
c) Batteries are prone to theft as its exposed to public roads
d) Poles cannot be shared with multiple operators due to the loading requirements

RoW related Rules

a) The present rules on right of way are silent on small cell deployment and access
to street furniture.
b) Lack of availability of backhaul.There is a shortage of adequate backhaul and at
reasonable costs which throws up significant challenges in deployment.
c) Lack of electrical power supply. Permits from electricity boards are a challenge.
Additionally, street furniture needs power back-ups.
d) Non-uniform implementation of RoW rules by states and municipal bodies.The
RoW rules have yet to be implemented by all states, union territories and municipal
bodies. Many of them continue to impose their own costs and approval frameworks
which are on the higher side.
e) High RoW Related Charges for using the Street Furniture, deployment of Small
cells and fibre. High restoration Charges
f) Challenging to get access to adequate street furniture for deployment.
g) Online Portal is yet not available in all the States, leading to delays.

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h) Restrictions on installation of towers/Small cells near educational institutes,

hospitals, airports, Defense establishments, religious places etc.
i) Lack of support from enforcement agencies like police dept. in dealing with public
issues including EMF exposure concerns.
j) Permissions from several authorities including electricity, gas, sewerage, Railways,
NHAI, forest authority causing delays and cost inefficiencies.
k) Permission/ approvals are kept pending, which can result in coercive action like
demolition/ sealing.
l) Many States still not having enabling provisions for using the Street Furniture
such as EB/LT Poles, Street Light Poles etc.

10) INDUSTRY SUGGESTIONS

INDUSTRY

To conclude, the following suggestions may be considered in light of the above

discussions, to facilitate deployment of small cells in India:

a) Adopting simplified and streamlined procedures for building/street furniture permits

for small cells based on size, installation requirements and radio characteristics.
b) Updating the Right of Way Rules, 2016 to include deployment of small cells.
c) Ensuring uniform implementation of the Right of Way Rules, 2016 by all the
states and union territories by all street assets owning entities/authorities, local
bodies, PSUs.
d) Reducing admin and other Charges for small cells deployment and for laying the
OFC.
e) Designing guidelines to facilitate the acquisition of new sites and greater
transparency on available assets such as towers, buildings and other structures.
f) Granting easy access and one-time permission to existing street furniture assets
such as traffic lights, bus stops, street lamps, EB Power supply etc.
g) State electricity boards /distribution companies to ease permits for usage of their
poles for deployment.
h) There should be close to Zero Month Rental for any Govt Infrastructure, Street
Poles, Municipality Roof top, Govt Offices Roof Top, Police Stations Roof Tops etc.
i) Exempting small cell installations from location registration requirements unless
necessary for other reasons.

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j) Implementing uniformity in grant of access to public spaces/ structures for installing

small cells across state and the local bodies.
k) Facilitating deployment of backhaul and at lower costs.
l) Ensuring access to spectrum and provision of adequate spectrum bands for
backhaul with wider channel sizes in millimeter wave (e.g. E & V Band) to augment
capacities and improve site planning.

We would hereby like to provide some of the key Documents for the consideration
of the Committee:

i) Ericsson site Solutions for Network Densification.

ii) Ramboll Tower Camouflage Solutions
iii) Nokia Small Cell Deployment Solution
iv) Note on Policy Support Requirements for Small Cell Deployments for
Broadband Network by Cell Densification Using Existing Street Furniture
v) Paper on The Role of Street Furniture in Expanding Mobile Broadband
vi) Small Cell Infrastructure Guidelines - Best Practices
vii) Small Cell Forum Forecast – 2021

FURTHER SUGGESTIONS FR
FURTHER OM CO
FROM AI
COAI

a) There is a need to have clarity in the definition under which category of BTSs will
“small cells” fall. Currently as per regulatory provisions there are three types of BTS: -
i) Inherently compliant: BTS which are EIRP<=2W and no reporting is required.
ii) Low Power BTS (LPBTS):Those which have EIRP > 2 W till 100W and compliance
is to be done as per SAC (Simplified Assessment Criterion): Small Cells will
mostly fall under this segment.
iii) BTS:The normal BTSs

b) NW DENSIFICA TION TO BE TECHNOL

DENSIFICATION TECHNOLOGY OGY NEUTRAL: Suggestion for Correction
in Convening Order.The convening order says,“Small cells in 5G to facilitate a standard
approach for the proliferation of Dense Small Cell Infrastructure”.The Small cells for
densification of NW will be technology neutral and it will be a mix of technologies - 4G
and 5G. We should not convey that the small cells are restricted to 5G technology.This
will help preclude any other interpretation at a later stage.There will be no “standard
approach” for deployment, this will be market and demand driven. We can recommend
measures to facilitate and catalyze the pace of network densification.

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c) INDOORS AND OUTDOOR DEPL DEPLO OYMENTS: The deployment of small cells will
be done both outdoors and indoors. In outdoors the physical assets of existing street
furniture should be made available for use in a convenient manner. Similarly, suitable
measures for making places inside buildings, shopping arcades/mall, airport terminals,
bus terminals, cinema houses etc be made available. Consider rating of buildings for
broadband coverage, like BEE ratings for energy.This will encourage indoor deployments
and encouraging market forces to assess buildings for digital facilities.

d) CONDUCT OF HA CKA
HACKA THON FOR DESIGN OF SMALL CELL AND MODERN
CKATHON
STREET FURNITURE: Suggest that Hackathon be conducted for the design of
small cells and street furniture for the design of these in the Indian environment.This
may involve the Smart Cities also. A budget of INR 10 crores be proposed for this.

e) Measuring Ef Efffecti
ectivveness of NW Densifica tion: Home grown apps like TRAI
Densification:
Analytical Apps may be used for measuring and reporting the effectiveness of measures
taken with an emphasis on Smart Cities on a periodical basis.

f ) ICNIRP 2020 Guidelines need to be adopted: As per GSMA policy Review Globally,
137 countries apply the international limit (ICNIRP 1998 or ICNIRP 2020).

The GSMA Report on “Paving the way for 5G readiness in India: A guide for effective
policymaking on small cell deployment is a good resource for Policy planning. This is
available at https://www.gsma.com/asia-pacific/latest-resources/

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(II) DIPA INPUTS ON SMALL CELLS

DIPA
SMALL CELLS: A Small Cell is a miniature Radio Access Point (AP) or wireless Base
Station with a low radio frequency (RF) power output, footprint and range that helps in
improving boosting coverage in various areas.

With 5G focusing on not just enhanced speed and capacity but also on ultra-low latency,
Small Cells will help efficiently enable the same in hyper dense areas and as per the
application requirements providing scalability at low cost. While the Macro Cell towers
transmit strong signals across large distances, small cells will boost coverage in densely
developed environments.This approach will help deliver enhanced end-user experiences
by strengthening data transfer speeds and negating the need for devices to compete for
bandwidth.

TYPES OF DEPLOYMENT
DEPLO

Indoor

i) Short range Small Cells for Indoor Residential use

ii) Basements and In-Building Solution in Private Networks

Outdoor

i) Street Furniture like light poles, streetlights, bus stops, billboards, and water towers
ii) Flyover and Metro Pillars
iii) Smart Poles

5G & SMALL CELLS

i) There were 99 countries and 14,643 cities worldwide with 5G deployments at the
end of Q3 2020.The US had the most cities with 5G deployments at the end of Q3
2020 with 7,583.
ii) 5G networks offer the potential to transform industrial sectors and deliver significant
social and economic benefits in India.
iii) Over the period 2023–2040, it is forecasted that 5G technologies will make an
overall contribution of approx. $450 billion to the Indian economy (0.6% of GDP by
2040).

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iv) The manufacturing sector is set to benefit the most from 5G applications (accounting
for 20% of the total benefit), followed by retail (12%) and ICT (11%).
v) 5G enabled digitalization revenue potential in India will be above USD 27 billion by
2026.
vi) Global small cell market is expected to reach a valuation of around $3,495 million
by 2025, recording a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 37.2 per cent
between 2019 and 2025.
vii) Number of indoor small cell deployments is expected to reach 5.6 million globally
by 2025, significantly higher than outdoor small cell deployments, which are expected
to reach 2.76 million during the same period.

BENEFITS OF DEPLOYING SMALLS CELLS FOR 5G CONNECTIVITY

DEPLO

i) With 5G coming with a highly promising speed and data rate and 100X increase in
site capacities not being feasible, the coverage of the Base Stations and the possible
distance travelled by the signal will be reduced highly effecting the reach of the
network. Smalls Cells will improve coverage in high density and low signal areas
insuring network connectivity everywhere.
ii) With eMBB and mMTC capabilities built-in, 5G small cells can connect a large
number of devices on a single private network, meeting capacity demands for
wireless connectivity.
iii) Enhancing the coverage in various areas and as per case requirements, Small
Cells will support a higher number of users simultaneously facilitating a low-cost
deployment.
iv) Coverage through Small Cells can be managed as per requirements. Customized
coverage can be established for private networks as needed by deploying small
cells accordingly.
v) Unlike Wi-Fi access points, 5G small cells are built on 3GPP mobile technology,
ensuring seamless hand-off between small cells with no connectivity loss.
vi) Deploying their own private network with 5G small cells, private enterprises are
able to keep all data on the premise rather than sending it through a public network
or cloud.
vii) 5G small cells can be deployed in licensed, shared, unlicensed or locally licensed
spectrum, providing enterprises with a variety of deployment options for their private
network.

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viii)Due to their low power operation capability, the Small Cells will require less power
for their functions.
ix) Being small in size, Small Cells are easy to install and handle.

BENEFITS OF USING ELECTRICITY POLES FOR 5G

Street furniture refers to objects in public spaces that can house small-cell units in boxes
and are considered visually commonplace and acceptable to the public with a power
source for the wireless equipment to function.

i) Usage of Public Infrastructure like Electricity Poles for Aerial OFC

ii) Street Furniture providing power backup and coverage

With the cost of deployment rising every day, Small Cell deployment on Electricity Poles
tends to provide various benefits.

i) Better Quality of Services (QoS)

ii) Expanding network coverage
iii) Going closer to the consumers
iv) Access at reasonable cost would increase cost savings
v) Smoothen 5G rollout by reducing a major hurdle

SMALL CELL DEPLOYMENT – CURRENT SCENARIO

DEPLO

i) TSP/IPs develop the light weight infrastructure capable of handling 1T deployments

ii) Limited ROW availability for deployment of small cells and aerial fibre on street
furniture (utilities/street light poles)
iii) Majority of DISCOMs and municipal bodies are reluctant to lease poles (public
infrastructure) for Small Cell and Aerial OFC deployment
iv) TSPs/IPs acquire the right of usage of street furniture from concerned authorities
(wherever allowed) and upgrade the infrastructure to support small cells.

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DEPLOYMENTS ACR
DEPLO OSS INDIA
CROSS

ISSUES IN USING ELECTRICITY POLES FOR SMALL CELL DEPLOYMENT

DEPLO

Being the optimal solution for 5G coverage for various cases, Small Cells face certain
bottlenecks as well that will need to be managed to maintain network quality and connectivity
at all times. Some of the issues at hand here are as follows:

z Permission from DISCOMs and Municipal Bodies

z RoW Policy streamlining at State/UT levels
z Need of LT EB connection at utility poles for powering up small cells
z Resistance from DISCOMs in allowing use of electric poles
z Limited Height availability to deploy Small Cell and Aerial OFC
z Regularization and uniformity of high rental demands
z Restrictions imposed by Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs)

GLOB
GLOBAL BEST PRA
OBAL CTICES
PRACTICES

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

STA

“Shot Clock” Order: Deemed approval provision for all 5G Infra including Small Cells”:
60-day shot clock during which an application must be addressed ensuring the efficient

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use of previously approved structures to support new antennas and technology upgrades.
If not addressed within 60 days, application is deemed granted.

Review Ex emptions – No Ar
Exemptions tificial R
Artificial estrictions R
Restrictions eg
Reg arding Land etc: All small cell
egarding
installations have had to be reviewed under both the National Environmental Policy Act
(NEPA) and National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), which were devised for large
towers. FCC order exempts most small cells from NEPA and NHPA review.

Small Cell Order – R Raa tionaliza tion of F

tionalization ee and Timelines: Designed to remove
Fee
various state and local barriers that would prevent 5G providers from accessing existing
facilities for installation of small cells. Limit the fees imposed for accessing public ROW
and shortened timelines for approving permit applications.

OTMR Order - One-Touc

One-Touc
ouchh Make-R
Make-Read
e-Read y Pro
eady vision ffor
Provision or Fast Deplo
Fast yment
Deployment

OTMR process gi
givves an entity seeking to a ttac
attac
ttachh to a utility pole the cchoice
hoice

z Perform all work necessary to prepare the pole for its facilities
z Follow the current practice where each attacher performs the necessary make-
ready work on its own facilities
z Developed a “5G FAST” plan to make auctioning high-band spectrum a priority

SINGAPORE

Easy access to various locations for the deployment of small cells

z Issue - Access to commercial and non-commercial locations for the deployment of

small cells
z Rationalization of High cost of Small Cell deployment due to large scale deployment
coupled with spectrum constraints in the initial years of 5G deployment
z Policy - Code of Practice for Info-communications Facilities in Buildings (“COPIF”)
z Objective - Provide for the use of space and facilities in buildings and tunnels for
5G infrastructure deployment.
a) Has required “mobile
b) Installation spaces”— typically rooftop spaces reserved for telecommunication
equipment be provided to network operators by building developers and
owners free of charge.

GERMANY

DigiNetz Act - Legal provision to promote Public Infrastructure sharing

z Increased use of the possibilities of co-use of passive infrastructures

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z Co-use of public supply infrastructures for fibre optics

z Co-deployment of fibre optics within the framework of public road construction
schemes
z Use of public carrier infrastructures to install micro or pico cells

Other R ef
Ref or
efor ms - Ease of doing b
orms usiness
business

z Standardized licensing procedures for the timely provision of these infrastructures

with the municipal authorities
z Technical security requirements for using these carrier structures to be defined in
the working group of the Federal Government and the federal states
z Optimizing approval and decision-making processes at the local authority and Federal
Network Agency

COLUMBIA
COLUMBIA

Cross Sector Infrastructure Sharing

z Infrastructure sharing between different sectors is a permitted practice through

Article 22 of Law 1341 of 2009.
z Commission for the Regulation of Communications (CRC) regulates the conditions
through which infrastructure of other sectors can be used in communication
services.

MEXICO

Right of Way (R
Wa egula
(Regula tor
tory
egulator y pro visions ffor
provisions or facilita ting Small Cell deplo
facilitating deployment)
yment)

The Energy Regulatory Commission issues the necessary provisions to allow access to
the facilities and rights of way pertaining to the national electric system to public service
providers acting in other industries, such as telecommunication services.

STAKEHOLDER DEP
STAKEHOLDER AR
DEPARTMENT/A
ARTMENT/AUTHORITY O
TMENT/AUTHORITY WNING RESPECTIVE STREET
OWNING
FURNITURE/ ALIGNMENT

z DISCOMs - Electricity Department

z Ministry of Defence, Cantonment Board – Cantonment Area
z MoCA, Airport Authority of India - Airports
z MAHUA, respective Metro Authority – Metro Stations/Pillars
z MAHUA, PWD/CPWD - Street Poles/Lights
z Department of Post - Post Office

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(III) MINISTRY OF PO
MINISTRY WER INPUTS
POWER
a) The required clearances of the cell from power lines for signal interference to
be provided and should be as per CEA Safety regulations.

b) It is mentioned that 5G cells would require a DC power supply of 48V for which
a battery system would also be installed along with each cell at base of the pole.
Hence, LT supply to each 5G unit cell has to be provided by the local DISCOMs.
The release of such a large number of power connections to all cells need the
intervention of the respective state regulatory commission for billing purposes.
The respective State commission would have to decide whether the collective
load of all 5G cells in one area may be treated as one connection or each cell
would be treated as a separate electricity connection.

c) In case DISCOMs take up the replacement of OH lines into UG cables in future,

questions on the responsibility for relocation may arise. Further, responsibilities
for damage/vandalism, if any of 5G cells would need to be delineated.

d) Stability issues such as Electric poles strength to bear the load as well as
possibilities of toppling of the poles would depend on the overall offsets, weight
and envelope of the 5G Cell infrastructure.Therefore, DOT and COAI may have
to provide suitable envelope, max offsets and maximum weights possible so that
the stability of poles can be adjusted.

e) It is suggested that a task force composed of Officials of DOT, COAI and CEA
may look into the matter of Regulations and stability of electric poles
comprehensively before decisions of installation of 5G Infrastructure are taken
by the Ministry of Power.

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(IV) CENTRAL ELECTRICITY A UTHORITY

UTHORITY,, MINISTR
MINISTRYY OF
PO WER INPUTS ON THE VARIOUS ST
POWER AND
STAND ARDS TYPES
ANDARDS
OF ELECTRICAL POLES SUCH AS MET AL, PRE-F
METAL, AB
AB,,
PRE-FAB
CEMENT ET C AL
ETC ONG WITH DIMENSIONS AND L
ALONG O AD
LO
BEARING SPECIFICA TIONS
SPECIFICATIONS
ELECTRIC POLES IN DISTRIBUTION SECT
DISTRIBUTION OR
SECTOR
There are different types of poles used in the distribution system depending on the voltage,
load bearing capacity, location, cost, importance of load including maintenance cost in
mind.The pole may be:
a) Wooden,
b) PCC pole,
c) Reinforced concrete poles,
d) Rail pole/ H beam
e) Steel tubular pole,
f) Fabricated steel structure etc.
The design of the pole may be H-beam, I-beam, spun type or tube type depending upon
the requirement.
WOODEN POLE
The wooden poles were used in earlier times and now a days are not used generally by
Discoms in India. If proper maintenance and treatment are done on the wood, the wooden
pole last for a long period.The major disadvantage is their low strength, increased risk of
fires, areas of high concentration of bugs, which decrease the durability of the material.
Therefore, wooden poles are rarely used now.
Wooden poles are classified into seven different classes based on breaking load capacity
(Refer table 3 of IS 5613 part 1 sec 1).The dimension of poles shall be as per table 1 of
IS 876:1992.
CONCRETE POLE: There are two types of concrete poles:
i) PCC Poles- Plain Cement Concrete
ii) RCC Poles- Reinforced Cement Concrete

PCC POLES

At present PCC poles are used in 11 KV and LT lines to a large scale.These type of poles
are costlier than a wooden pole but cheaper than a steel pole.This kind of poles have a

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longer life and the maintenance cost is negligible.The strength of the PCC Pole is much
more than that of a wooden pole but less than that of a steel pole.The only disadvantages
of this pole are, it is very heavy and breakable.

The design and Dimension of PCC poles used for overhead lines shall be as given in IS
1678-1978.The minimum overall length of poles shall be 6m and subsequent length shall
be steps of 0.5m.

RCC POLES

In this type of poles, rods are used to increase the strength of the pole. The tensile
strength of the pole is high.These type of poles are used up to 33 kV. These are mostly
used at diversions, endpoints and start points.The cost of the RCC pole is more compared
to the PCC pole.

The strength and Dimension of RCC pole shall be as given in IS 785-1964. Length of
these poles vary from 6m to 9m.

RAIL POLES

Rail pole has high mechanical strength; therefore, the life span of the rail pole is more.The
weight of the rail pole is more, therefore the cost of transportation, loading and unloading
are more.This type of poles can be used up to 33 kV.The cost of rail pole is high and the
installation cost is also more. The length may vary from 9 to 12 m. Rail pole used in
overhead line are of generally four sizes:

i) 30 kg per metre
ii) 37 kg per metre
iii) 45 kg per metre
iv) 52 kg per metre

STEEL TUBULAR POLES

TUBULAR

The load bearing capacity is much more in steel tubular pole in comparison to that of
concrete or rail pole. If proper maintenance is done, these poles last for longer period.
Length of these poles vary from 9m to 16m.These poles are of different sizes for bearing
different load capacities.These are of two types:

a) STEPPED POLE: Stepped pole are made from one length of tube, seamless or
welded, the diameter being reduced in parallel steps by passing the tubes through
series of dies.
b) SW
SWA AGGED POLE: Swaged poles shall be made of seamless or welded tubes of
suitable lengths swaged and joined together. No circumferential joints shall be permitted

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in the individual tube lengths of the poles. If welded tubes are used, they shall have
one longitudinal weld seam only; and the longitudinal welds shall be staggered at
each swaged joint.

The specification of the above poles shall be as per IS 2713 Part I.

Further, based on the strength of poles, there are two types of poles i.e. poles made of
high strength steel only (tensile strength 540 MPa or 55 kgf/mm2) and poles made of mild
steel (tensile strength 410 MPa or 42 kgf/mm2).The overall length may vary from 7m to
16m.

The dimensions and load bearing capacity of 410 MPa tensile strength pole is as per table
1 & 2 of IS 2713 Part II and tensile strength 540 MPa pole is as per table 1 & 2 of IS 2713
Part III.The overall length may vary from 7m to 16m.

FABRICATED STEEL STR

ABRICATED UCTURE
STRUCTURE

The factor of safety of the fabricated steel structure is equivalent or better than that of
steel tubular poles. Pieces of steel are put together to form different structures that are
usually of predefined sizes and shapes depending upon the requirement.

Table: Type of pole

pole,, load bearing ca pacity and dimension
capacity
S. Type of Pole
Pole Load Bearing Capacity Dimensions
No..
No
1 Wooden Pole Classified into Seven different classes as Length may vary from 6 to 14m. Other
per table 3 of IS 5613-1-1 and IS 876. Design parameters as per Table 1 of IS 876-
1992.
2 RCC Poles As per design Length may vary from 6-9m. Design
parameters shall be as per IS 785-1998.
3 PCC Poles As per design Length may vary from 6 to 17m. Design
parameters shall be as per IS 1678-1978
4 Steel Tubular Poles Based on tensile strength of steel, it comes Length may vary from 7m to 16m. Design
in two category 410MPa and 540MPa. parameters shall be as per IS 2713 part 2 &
Load bearing capacity of 410 MPa tensile 3.
strength pole is as per table 1 & 2 of IS 2713
Part II and tensile strength of 540 MPa pole
is as per table 1 & 2 of IS 2713 Part III.
5 Rail Poles Comes in four category based on strength The length may vary from 9 to 12 m.
of steel.
6 Fabricated steel As per design As per design
structure

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(V) MOHU
MOHUAA INPUTS ON IN BUILDING SOL
BUILDING UTIONS FOR SMALL
SOLUTIONS
CELLS
1. Introduction: Communication System

Data growth is exploding globally and in India as per Nokia MBiT 2021 Report, the average
monthly data usage per user in India has increased almost 17 times over the past 5 years.
Covid 19 has further pushed data consumption with people staying indoors. Government
has facilitated Work from Home (WFH) guidelines with a Work from Anywhere (within
India) permitted. Home consumption of data has therefore grown exponentially through
2020. According to the Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association, almost 85% data
traffic and 70% voice traffic is now generated indoors.

The World Bank has clearly demonstrated that every 10% increase in broadband penetration
leads to nearly 1.40% increase in GDP growth rate. While that is a global average, even
the India specific study by the reputed quasi-Government research agency, ICRIER, has
shown that every 10% increase in internet traffic delivers 3.1% increase in GDP per
capita and a 10% increase in investment in Telecom Infrastructure will increase GDP by
3.3% The entire consumer pull today is focused on data and broadband now with the new
digital services providing voice services free with the data services. Video and app-based
services are driving the demand for broadband with Apps for e-commerce, e-healthcare
etc. in everyday use. It is very clear that internet traffic and Apps are contributing to GDP
growth and for this to grow even further, conventional connectivity needs to be replaced
with duct-sharing and fibre especially, which is an essential requirement In-Building as
much as it is for FTTx and Tower Fiberization.

{Note - “Service Provider”: an agency that provides any type of telecom / IT services in a
building complex, as per scope defined by DOT i.e.TSP / ISP / IP1 etc.}

A broad variety of Information Communication Technology (ICT) systems are expected to

be installed in buildings. In order to facilitate proper cabling and installation /up gradation
of ICT systems and their cost effectiveness and maintenance, adequate physical
infrastructure is required within buildings.This infrastructure will include common ducts,
cable riser systems, conduits, cable trays and utility closets etc. among other things.The
same can also be retrofitted into existing buildings wherever possible and feasible and
must be designed in all new, re-developed and renovated structures.This section describes
the general and specific requirements of such an ICT infrastructure in Building specially
in respect of cabling aspects.

Communication systems are general utility in much the same way as water, power, gas,
cable TV & CCTV/Security. Unlike traditional communication systems which are constantly
evolving, the recommended Digital infrastructure has to be designed to be flexible enough

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to accommodate a variety of ICT systems and emerging technologies and be future proof
for the next 25-30 years. Space and power is required for installation of common ducts,
optical fibre, small cells, antennas, smart sensors etc, space, power and earthing is required
for electronic equipment installation for supporting the various digital technologies of now
and the future. Most communication utilities can share the same space since the physical
topology and wiring requirements are similar and no significant power is present in the
cables. However, in some cases state-of-the – art communication cabling or equipment
will involve new or more specific requirements for utility spaces such as:

- Cable routing layout and cable length restrictions between Work-Space and utility
closet.
- Bending radius and working clearance requirements for different cable types, e.g.
Fiber optic cables, Cat-6 Cables and co-axial cables
- Isolated power circuits for permanent communication equipment,
- Protection, Safety, Grounding and environmental requirements of communication
equipment.

2. Emerging Tec hnolo

echnolo gies in Telecommunica
hnologies tion Ser
elecommunication vices
Services

The technologies used for telecommunications have changed greatly and over the past
few years and particularly during the pandemic, India has experienced a massive surge in
indoor voice and data consumption. According to the Tower and Infrastructure Providers
Association, almost 85% data traffic and 70% voice traffic is now generated indoors.
Telecommunication network architecture is changing to meet new requirements for a
number of services/applications viz. 5G, massive Internet of things, Artificial Intelligence
etc.

Choosing efficient and cost-effective and fast-deployment technologies such as wired and
wireless networks will improve accessibility. Based on type of building and profile of
customers in the buildings, the needs of wired and wireless may vary. Further, the
architecture of the information and communication infrastructure is changing to
accommodate the requirements of a growing number of ICT-enabled services/applications
(broadband, IP, mobile, multimedia, surveillance, IoT etc.)

In line with the changing market needs, the Digital Service Providers (TSPs)/ISPs/IP-
1’shave been scaling up the deployment of in-building solutions (IBS) and FTTx, covering
active and/or passive infrastructure. Further, industry stakeholders are putting greater
emphasis on sharing in-building infrastructure to save opex and capex, as well as to avoid
the duplication of infrastructure deployment.

Moving forward, the humungous growth of data traffic riding on the use of the digital
infrastructure during the pandemic and with the new WFH (Work-from-Home) and work-

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from-anywhere paradigms and with the emergence of 5G are expected to create huge
opportunities for extension of ubiquitous, reliable and high speed digital infrastructure into
the homes and inside residential buildings, and lead to huge growth of shared in-Building
Solutions sites.

Theoretically, wireless services can be provided from outside the building. However, there
are appreciable losses in signal strength when it penetrates building walls. While all wireless
services can suffer from poor in-building coverage, this problem is particularly pronounced
for the high-speed services.These services require a much better signal quality than their
voice counterpart.Therefore, in order to improve in-building coverage and to offer better-
quality high-speed data services, there is a definite need to install in- building solutions
(IBS) for augmenting the wireless-based voice and data services.This is equally true for
installing 5G and WiFi hotspots along with Fibre to x(FTTX) distribution network of Fiber
and Cat-6 Cables for seamless data connectivity.

Provisioning of telecom services and broadcasting services viz Cable TV, DTH and Security
Services viz. CCTV Cameras and futuristic services viz IoT based sensors would require
suitable wireline connectivity inside the buildings inside buildings are not confined to
wireless medium only. Wireline services through cables such as copper cables, optical
fibre cables (OFC), LAN Cat-6 cables are also equally important for having uninterrupted
connectivity. Also, for services such as Cable TV, DTH and Smart Devices Solutions (IoT),
suitable cabling within building premises is a pre- requisite and for that, shared duct space
across the building riser and floors is critical to achieve the flexibility in the future.

Improved IBS coverage MNOs / Network operators should be allowed to install such
appropriate instruments as provided by licensor/ Regulator from time to time.

3. Policy Ef
Efff or ts

The proliferation of in-building connectivity has become a key component of government

policies.The National Digital Communications Policy, 2018 proposes to make the installation
of telecom infrastructure and associated cabling and in-building solutions mandatory in
all commercial, residential and official buildings (including government buildings) by
amending the National Building Code of India with the help of the Bureau of Indian
Standards.

The Government has been taking a number of steps for promoting the sharing of in-
building infrastructure, in line with TRAI recommendations.

a. In October 2019, the Digital Communications Commission (DCC) approved in-

building access and sharing of infrastructure among TSPs, thereby allowing them
to share infrastructure and, in the process, curbing TSPs’ monopoly to install
infrastructure through exclusive contracts with the owners/builders.

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b. In November 2019, the Department of Telecommunications issued an advisory to

encourage all TSPs/IP-1s to share their in-building infrastructure such as systems,
optical fibre, other cables, ducts and boosters on government premises and other
public places such as airports, railway stations, bus terminals and hospitals.

The government’s policy and regulatory push coupled with the everexpanding data usage
has propelled TSPs/IP-1s to scale up the deployment of IBS.There is an urgent requirement
to allow TSPs/IP-1s to own active built and manage active infrastructure in addition to
passive infrastructure to help them cater to the ever-increasing data demand.

Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has framed National Building Code of India under
which provision of Common Telecom Infrastructure (CTI) housed inside the buildings for
convenient provision of telecom services has been envisaged.

Making cities smarter: Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs led Smart Cities Mission is
another key driver that is encouraging the adoption of in-building solutions (IBS) and
FTTx/IP networks covering Fiber and LAN cables. Since, the success of the mission relies
on the underlying digital communications infrastructure, the cities identified under this
programme have mandated to install common infrastructure inside buildings to enable
seamless connectivity. To this end, certain smart cities have started collaborating with
infrastructure providers to scale up the deployment of IBS and Fiber network. Moving
forward, IBS and FTTx/IP networks covering Fiber and LAN cables should be included as
one of the key parameters in the selection of smart cities for granting financial assistance.

4. In- Building and Gated Buildings Solutions

It is important to ensure quality telecom services inside a building – in residential, multi-

story building, commercial complex, hotel or airport, police/Government offices/buildings
etc. It is also essential for Telecommunication Service Providers/IP-1s to work on sharing
of telecom infrastructure which may be made mandatory as they extend the services in
the buildings.

Telecom Service Providers/IP-1s require a non-discriminatory and unhindered access

inside the building / along the premises to install the telecom infrastructure or lay their
cables.

At present, mobile operators and the building owner or building developer or Resident
Welfare Associations (RWA) enter into commercial agreements for inbuilding deployment.
Building owners or building developers delay the negotiations or request exorbitant rents
— slowing down the speed of deployment.The Urban Local Body /Urban Development
Authority may intervene in this regard wherein commercial agreements are insisted upon.
TSPs/IP-1s should be given legal rights and permissions to use the Common Telecom
Infrastructure (CTI) within the premises of Building / Gated Society free of charge or for

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a standardized nominal charge just like other essential services like water electricity and/
or gas. Provision of CTI in a building should not be deemed as a revenue source in any
way, much as the water and electricity utilities are not. Sufficient space should be provided
within the premises to install telecom services by MNOs/ network operators.

The issue is not limited to sharing of IBS/ Distributed Antenna System (DAS) systems only, but
TSP should get access to all telecom infrastructures including Fiber Cable and LAN cables for
provision of wired and wireless network, other telecom/ICT and IoT services.

It is important for telecom service providers to provide mobile coverage / network presence/
high speed connectivity inside big residential / commercial complexes to improve QoS of
their networks. It may not be practical to install individual in-building infrastructure by
TSPs/IP-1s as this will result in not only duplication of network resources but will also
entail huge avoidable cost. It may also be not advisable to lay down cables again and
again on the same land / building by several TSPs/IP-1s.

5. Incorporation in State /UT Building Bye Laws

The buildings are to be constructed in such a way that they are ‘Digital Infrastructure
deployment’ / ‘Digital Connectivity’ ready. There should be provision of telecom ducts /
common pathways / runways (digital access paths) to reach to the accessible parts of the
buildings.The common ducts /digital access paths to access buildings from outside should
invariably be part of the CTI, which could be used by TSPs/IP-1s for laying/deploying
digital infrastructure including cables. While approving the building plans, it has to be
ensured that plan for creation of CTI including the common duct to access the common
space used as telecom room inside the building is also prepared and separate set of
drawings showing the inter / intra connectivity access to the building with distribution
network need to be furnished.

Occupancy-cum-Completion certificate to a building to be granted only after ensuring that

the CTI as per the prescribed standards is in place and an undertaking by the Architect or
Engineer to be insisted to certify that building has ensured common access to all digital
infrastructure to all Service providers in accordance with plan of creation of CTI. Provision of
visit from Department of Telecom (DoT) / TRAI officials along-with joint inspection with TSPs
- who may suggest any relevant modification in the plan to be ensured.

As par
partt of Building Bye-Laws
e-Laws,, the b
Bye-Laws uilder/R
builder/R
uilder/RWWA should be manda ted to ensure
mandated
that

i) While preparing the building plans, there is a need to mandate to have properly
demarcated sections within buildings and on rooftops for housing BroadBand /
digital connectivity infrastructure / antenna. These areas should have access to
power supply for reliable, always-on services.

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ii) Access to building as well as CTI facilities inside the building should be available on
a fair, transparent and non- discriminatory manner to all Service Providers /IP1’s.
iii) The Service Providers / IP1’s should have unrestricted access for maintenance
work.
iv) The permission to in-building access and/or CTI facilities inside the building should
not be seen as a source of revenue generation for builder(s)/RWA(s) but as a
means for facilitating penetration of broadband access and thereby helping in socio-
economic growth of all the residents.
v) Charges (rentals/power rates etc.) levied to the TSPs/IP-1s should be fair, transparent
and non-discriminatory and should be on residential rates.

Suitable provision for the creation of Common Telecom Infrastructure (CTI) inside the
newly constructed public places like Airports, commercial complexes and residential
complexes, be incorporated in State/UT Building Bye Laws.

6. At Layout Le
Lay vel
Lev

While developing Greenfield cities/towns, the layout plans should clearly indicate the telecom
as Utility infrastructure lines. Standards followed for Utility planning shall be published
and work shall be done by the respective department for bringing in the standardization of
the utility coding and sequences. The placement and sequence of above- and below-
ground utilities at the appropriate location in the right-of-way to be ensured for unconstrained
movement as well as easy access for maintenance.Telecommunication cables should be
placed in a duct that can be accessed at frequent service points with sufficient spare
capacity to enable scaling and future expansion, and empty pipes (large size hume pipes /
HDPE pipes) should be laid before planting trees in order to accommodate additional
infrastructure.

Digital Readiness Rating of Buildings / Society in line to the GREEN ratings shall be
created where the existing and new buildings shall be rated on standardized parameters
such as; but not limited to; Digital Infrastructure access, provisions for Emerging Technologies,
Maintenance and Operational ease to TSPs / IPv1, Quality of Wireless Services, Quality /
Interchangeability ease of Wireline Services till each Unit Security, redundancy and
Expandability of the digital infrastructure etc. A detailed rating parameters and calculation
mechanism of Points / Stars shall be devised and benchmarked for all new / retrofitting of
buildings/ societies.

Digital Asset repository which will ensure Proper planning and mapping of utilities through
GIS is necessary especially when the alignments of telecommunication cables are identified.
Design criteria and standards Utilities should meet the following criteria:

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ƒ Telecommunication cables should ideally be placed below the parking area or service
lane, which may be dug up easily without causing major inconvenience. Where this
is not possible, the cables may be placed at the outer edge of the right-of-way.
ƒ There is a need to reduce conflicts with pedestrian movements is to place telecom
boxes in easements just off the right-of-way. Where this is not possible, they should
be placed within parking or landscaping areas. If cables have to be located in the
pedestrian path, a space of at least 2m should be maintained for the through
movement of pedestrians. Telecom boxes should never constrain the width of a
cycle track.
ƒ In order to minimize disruptions, cables should be installed with proper maintenance
infrastructure.

7. Other procedures for setting up In-Building Solution (IBS)/ Fiber Networks

(1) There is a need to promote installation of In-Building Solution (IBS) / Smart Connectivity
infrastructure, where there is a poor connectivity in terms of weak signal strength
inside the office, shopping mall, hospitals, multi-story building, education institutions
and the objective has to be to strengthen quality of service of the voice & data of
mobile and Fiber broadband network and access to digital services being offered by
TSP and IP1’s

A) Procedures of obtaining IBS-NOC during plan approval and completion

a) While submitting the proposed Building plan seeking approval from the relevant
sanctioning Authority, applicant shall also submit
i. A complete Service Plan for IBS-infrastructure along with required specifications
(in consultation with, and certified by a credible Telecom Networking hardware-
consultant)
ii. An undertaking that such IBS Infrastructure, when constructed shall be available
for sharing by various TSPs/IP-Is.
iii. Such Service Plan (IBS) shall be forwarded by the concerned Local Authority
to the Telecom Enforcement Resource and Monitoring (TERM) cell of the State
(external NOC agency) – for approval NOC.
iv. During the Joint Site Inspection of the completed building structure the TERM
cell shall undertake inspection of the constructed/installed IBS infrastructure –
for issuance of NOC for OCC.
b) The Local Authority shall liaise with the TERM cell as per its relevant online/offline
process of communication to seek the relevant NOCs within the specified time as per
the Service Charter/ Service Guarantee Act and rules in place. Separate communication
from the applicant shall be needed to secure the IBS NOC.

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B) Provision of IBS components in building premises: (as per NBC 2016)

Entrance Facilities (EF) /Lead-in conduits: (clause 3.1.4, of Part 8: Sec 6) min. 1.2m x
1.83m space to be allocated for each TSP adjacent to the EF.
Underground conduits/pipes to MDF room: min 100mm dia encased conduits.
Main Distribution Frame (MDF)/Equipment Room(ER):
(Clause 3.1.2, Part 8: Sec 6)
- Prescribed size with L:W ratio between 1:1 to 2:1
- Appropriate ventilation of MDF room
- proper Lighting for vision of equipments,
- located at a level above from the Natural Ground lvl to avoid incidence of
flooding

Electric distribution panels, isolaters, sockets and earthing as per specific requirements
w.r.t the area proposed for coverage (DUs/ service subscribers)
Telecommunications Room (TR) at each building block unless provided with MDF room:
(all provisions of space to be as per clause 3.1.3.2, Part 8: Sec 6)
Appropriate nos. of Service/Telecom risers (vertical shafts) for all multi-storeyed buildings
w.r.t the area proposed for coverage (DUs/ service subscribers):
- of appropriate nos and size (width & depth) to accommodate cable trays
- with of access door at each floor.
Telecommunications Enclosures (TE) at each floor of a block or TR
(clause 3.1.5, Part 8: Sec 6)
Telecom Media and Connecting Hardware (TE): (clause 3.2, Part 8: Sec 6)
Various cabling system and trays: (clause 3.2.4, Part 8: Sec 6)
Wireless systems: (clause 3.2.5, Part 8: Sec 6)
Backbone Cabling Media Distribution and Bldg. pathways
(clause 3.3, Part 8: Sec 6)
Horizontal Cabling Media Distribution and Bldg. pathways
(Clause 3.4, Part 8: Sec 6)

IBS installation spaces: area for rooms or systems (e.g. antennas, base stations, remote
units, power distribution boxes etc.) to be provided as per requirements w.r.t the area
proposed for coverage/ no. of proposed users (as per clause 3.1.3.2, Part 8: Sec 6, table
stated below)

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1 Telecom room space norm for buildings with Built-up area >465 sqmt

S .N. Area to be covered by IBS Siz

Sizee of Telecom R oom (all dimension in m)
Room
1 Upto 465 sqmt 3.0 x 2.4
2 465.0 sqmt to 930.0 sqmt 3.0 x 3.4
3 More than 930.0 sqmt Additional TR required with same space norms

Space requirements for smaller buildings with Built-up area

S .N. Area to be covered by IBS Siz

Sizee of Telecom R oom (all dimension in m)
Room
1 Upto 93.0 sqmt Wall cabinets, self-contained enclosed cabinets.
2 93.0 sqmt to 465.0 sqm Shallow Room (0.6 x 2.6)
Walk-in Room (1.3 x 1.3)

IBS installation spaces, so provided, should be:

- not susceptible to flooding

- not exposed to water, moisture, fumes, gases or dust
- able to withstand designed equipment load (to be specified in design)
- located away from any vibrations to avoid dislocation/dislodgement

For any other necessary detailing of building components and service installations with
respect to common Telecom/Digital connectivity Infrastructure, architects/ developers and
other service consultants involved in preparing building and service drawings may refer
Part 8 – Section 6: Information and Communication Enabled Installations of Volume 2 of
the National Building Code, 2016

(2) Mode of deployment of In-Building, FTTx/IP Solution:There shall be various mode

of deployment of In Building solutions such as:The possible modes are deployment
by a neutral host infrastructure provider or build and managed by mobile operator
and sharing with other service providers on nondiscriminatory basis.The In-Build
Solutions (IBS), FTTx/IP Solutions can also be deployed by TSPs/ IPs. Moreover, if
TSP/ IP1 requires to install optical fiber for connecting In-Building Solution (IBS)/
Distributed Antenna System (DAS) nodes/ FTTx solutions, RoW/ permissions should
be granted by the road owning agency through online mode (if same is working
seamlessly) or offline mode till online system is established. For deploying indoor

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solutions these companies should have deemed permissions from the premises
owners for installation of Distribution Network within the utility shafts / common
spaces with provisions for common / shared Points of Interconnect for Connectivity
to individual units. Moreover, if the TSP/IP requires to install optical fiber for
connecting In-Building Solution (IBS) / Distributed Antenna System (DAS) nodes ,
FTTx/IP Solutions . for which RoW / permissions should be granted by the road
owning agency through online mode.
(3) Permissibility:The IBS, FTTx/IP component being small equipment can be installed
on any type of land/building/utility pole and shall be exempted from obtaining the
permission for installation of these components from the respective Urban Local
Body/Urban Development Authority butshould get permission from the Administrative
Authority of the concerned premises.
(4) Procedure for submitting application for obtaining clearance:TSP/ IP-1 will apply to
the administrative authority of the building/ head of the office with layout diagram
for implementing IBS in the building as mentioned in the RoW Rules 2016 or State
notified RoW Policy
(5) Fees: No fee will be charged for IBS/ FTTx Network. However, charges may be
levied for power (as per Industry tariffs), fixtures, etc. provided by building owners
to TSP/ IP-1s as per actuals.
(6) Access and Distribution Fiber and IP/LAN networks for connectivity for the Shopping
Malls, Multi-Storey Residential Buildings, Cooperative Housing Societies, Residential
Welfare Association and Commercial Buildings to be planned and deployed by
TSP/IP-1s as per standard requirement of providing high bandwidth and adequate
indoor coverage to each unit/apartment in these complexes.

References:

a) Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (2011): Recommendations on Telecommunications

Infrastructure Policy.
b) Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (2017): Recommendations on InBuilding Access by
Telecom Service Providers.
c) Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (2018): Guidelines for
Applicants for ducting & laying of optical fiber.

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ANNEXURE-B

Repor
eportt of the Committee constituted ffor or ffor
or mula
ormula ting “SA
mulating CF
“SACF A cclear
CFA lear ance process
learance
for 5G Small Cells” R epor t of the Committee Constituted ffor
Repor or ffor
or mula
ormula ting the
mulating
SA CF
SACF A cclear
CFA lear ance process with minimum compliance b
learance urden ffor
burden or 5G Small cells
to be installed on e xisting street infr
existing astr
infrastr ucture/fur
astructure/fur niture
ucture/furniture

1. Constitution of the Committee

1.1 A Committee with the approval of the Secretary (T) has been constituted vide OM
No. K-19014/01/2022-CFA dated 08.02.2022for formulating the SACFA clearance
process with minimum compliance burden for 5G Small cells to be installed on existing
street infrastructure/furniture.

The composition of the Committee is as below:

i) Shri R K Saxena, WA – Chairman

ii) Shri Gulab Chand, JWA(WPC HQ) – Member

iii) Shri Rajeev Tyagi, DDG(FN),TEC – Member

iv) Shri A.K. Meena, ED(ATM),AAI –Member

v) Shri Col. Pushpendra Mair, Director(JCES) – Member

vi) Smt. M.Revathi, Sr.DWA(COP) – Member

vii) Shri L D Meghwal, Sr.DWA(SACFA) - Member(Convener)

2. Ter ms and R
erms ef
Ref erence of the Committee
eference

2.1 The Committee was to provide recommendations for formulating the SACFA clearance
process with minimum compliance burden for 5G Small cells to be installed on existing
street infrastructure/furniture.

3. Background

3.1 To achieve the Digital India objectives, timely deployment of 5G in India is the need of
the hour. The Auction for 5G Spectrum is expected to be conducted by mid of this
year and it will be followed by deployment of 5G Infrastructure.To deliver the promise
of 5G in various frequency bands, there is a need of network densification, for which
small cells are inevitable.

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3.2 Mobile operators are expected to use “Small Cells” having range from ten meters to
several hundred meters to extend their service coverage and increase the network
capacity. These will help in serving more users, particularly in densely populated
areas. Small cells can be mounted on existing buildings and street furniture such as
bus shelters, lamp posts, utility poles, electricity poles, etc. Page 2 of 4

3.3 Deployment of “Small Cells” is expected to go up heavily, increasing the need for a
favourable regulatory regime.There is an increasing demand to deploy these small
cells on the existing street infrastructure.The department has also formed a committee
under TEC to formulate standards/policy for roll out of street infrastructure and small
cells in 5G to facilitate a standard approach for the proliferation of Dense Small Cell
Infrastructure.

3.4 Further, to simplify the SACFA clearance procedure and compliance burden on the
industry during deployment of 5G small cells, the department considered that the
issue needs to be deliberated with AAI, JCES and TEC while formulating SACFA
clearance procedures for small cells.

4. Existing SACF
SACF A Clear
CFA ance Procedure
Clearance

4.1 Presently, the installation of towers (BTS) is being cleared on the basis of pre-defined
criteria and for sites which do not meet the criteria are being circulated to the members
of the SACFA Secretariat i.e. JCES and AAI.

4.1.1 Criteria based clearances: There are four auto settled criteria for processing
SACFA cases:

a) 7/40 Sites falling =>7 Km and having height =<40m (w.r.t. AMSL of site
and airport

b) ARP 20/100 Sites falling =>20 Km and having height =<100m (w.r.t. AMSL of site
and airport)
c) VFR 20/150 Sites falling >20 Km and having height <150m (AGL w.r.t.VFR airports

d) IFR 56/150 Sites falling >56 Km and having height <150m (AGL w.r.t. IFR airports

e) Exemption Towers installed 3m above the rooftop of the existing

authorized buildings

f) Addl. Antenna RF Antenna installed on existing SACFA cleared towers

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4.1.2 Clearances through circulation: AAI is processing all the SACFA cases and
conveys their NOC through their NOCAS system. JCES processes cases through
web interface in Saral Sanchar portal.

4.2 Keeping in line with the Ease of Doing Business, the entire process is end-to-end
online as well as paperless with time bound clearances.

5. Deliberations in the Committee

5.1 The first meeting of the Committee was held on 09.02.2022 to deliberate the issue.
The existing SACFA Clearance procedure was placed before the committee. Page 3
of 4

5.2 The 5G Spectrum Auction is proposed to take place in mid of this year.To facilitate
faster roll-out, industry has requested for exemption from the SACFA Clearance process
both in terms of application and the processing fees.

5.3 As per Radio Regulations, every station has to be licensed (WOL). Such technical
parameters are required to meet different national as well as International obligations
provisioned in Radio Regulations of ITU-R. It is also necessary to ensure interference
free coexistence of different in-band/adjacent band services.

5.4 However, in this regard, it is pertinent to mention that TSP networks have been exempted
from the necessary requirement of obtaining Wireless Operating License (WOL).The
exemption was granted as a special dispensation citing that SACFA clearances contain
all the necessary details required for this purpose; therefore, WOL may not be required.

5.5 Taking into consideration the facts mentioned above as well as the requirements of
the industry for the faster and seamless roll out of 5G services in the country, during
the meeting, WPC Wing has proposed that SACFA Clearance for small cells may be
considered on Registration basis through the SaralSanchar Portal at a reduced fee
as compared to the SACFA Clearance presently being issued.The TSPs will be required
to provide an undertaking that the top height of the antenna of such small cell shall
be below the height of the existing street furniture/ existing structure.

5.6 AAI has pointed out that since the deployment of small cells is being considered on
existing street infrastructure, they will not pose any flight hazard.Therefore, the process
of SACFA Clearance for such cases can be done away with.

5.7 JCES has also mentioned that while further examination of such cases is not necessary;
however, a database of such installations may be made accessible. JCES was also of

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the opinion that the fee is an administrative matter and the decision regarding the
same may be taken by WPC Wing.

5.8 JCES has also stressed on the need for a deterrence mechanism both for the SACFA
Clearance of small cells as well as the SACFA Clearances obtained through self-
declaration vide O.M. No. K-19013/13/2005-CFA dated 06.10.2021.The appropriate
penalties need to be imposed on applicants violating the norms.

5.9 Further,TEC has said that since the range, height and radiated power of such small
cells is less they may not pose any flight hazard.The proposed process of simplification
of SACFA procedure is in line with the objective of facilitating the proliferation of
Small Cell Infrastructure.

6. RECOMMENDATIONS
RECOMMENDA

Keeping in view the high density of small cells and the fact that they will be deployed
on existing street infrastructure, the Committee recommends:

6.1 The requirement for formal application for SACFA processing may be done away
with for such small cells having power output (i.e. EIRP) of such LP-BTS antenna is
< 100W;

however, the TSPs rolling out these small cells (outdoor only) namely Microcells,
Picocells and Femtocells which can be installed on window sills or street furniture/
existing structure, shall register the details of such sites, along with their geo-coordinates
and technical parameters in the Saral Sanchar Portal.

6.2 Acknowledgement of such registration can be downloaded by TSPs instantly, provided;

an undertaking (inbuilt in the registration application) by TSPs with regard to height

of such antenna stating that the top height of the antenna of such small cell shall be
below the height of the existing street furniture/ existing structure is submitted.

6.3 The appropriate penalty be imposed as per the extant rules, in case of violating
undertaking and submitting wrong declaration.

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GLOSSARY
GLOSSARY
LPBTS: Low Power Base Transceiver Stations
RF: Radio Frequency
TEC: Telecommunication Engineering Centre
DoT: Department of Telecommunications
4G LTE: Fourth-Generation Long-Term Evolution
C-V2X: Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything
EIRP: Effective Radiated Isotropic Power
SAC: Simplified Assessment Criteria
ITU: International Telecommunication Union
5G NR: 5G New Radio
ICNIRP: International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection
EMF: Electromagnetic fields
WHO: World Health Organization
MoHUA: Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs
RoW: Right of Way
ScaaS: Small-Cell-as-a-Service
TRAI: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
TSP: Telecom Service Provider
EB: Electricity Board
KSEB: Kerala State Electricity Board
Li ON: Lithium-ion
SACFA: Standing Advisory Committee on Radio Frequency Allocations
WPC: Wireless Planning and Coordination
BRI: Broadband Readiness Index
COAI: Cellular Operators Association of India
NDMC: New Delhi Municipal Council
5G: Fifth Generation

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REFERENCES
1. Installation of communications network facilities on street furniture, Malaysian Technical Standard
Forum Bhd, MTSFB067_2019.

2. Test Procedure for Measurement of Electromagnetic Fields from Base Station Antenna, No:TEC/
TP/EMF/001/04.JUN 2018 and TEC 13019:2021

3. The Role of Street Furniture in Expanding Mobile Broadband, Wireless Infrastructure Associations

4. Inputs from Stakeholders like DIPA/ Nokia/ Ericsson/ Qualcomm/ MoHUA

5. Provo City Power Small Cell Infrastructure Design Standards

6. https://www.trai.gov.in/sites/default/files/CP_19052021.pdf

7. https://www.cityofnapa.org/DocumentCenter/View/5875/Napa-Small-Cell-Technical-and-Aesthetic-
Guidelines-PDF

8. Effects of Mobile Radiation, Report by Lok Sabha Secretariat, New Delhi, June 2016.

9. Provisions for in building solutions for Telecom Infrastructure, Addendum to Model Building by
Laws-2016 published by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Govt of India.

10. https://www.icnirp.org/en/differences

11. https://www.gsma.com/asia-pacific/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Small-Cell-Report.pdf

12. https://trai.gov.in/sites/default/files/White_Paper_22022019_0.pdf

13. “Guidelines on the Use of Sheltered Bus Stops for the Installation of Radio Base Stations for
Provision of Public Mobile Services”: https://www.coms- auth.hk/filemanager/statement/en/upload/
552/gn112020.pdf

14. GSMA Report on Small Cells in India: https://www.gsma.com/asia-pacific/latest-resources/https:/

/www.slc.gov/engineering/small-cell-infrastructure-design-standards/

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Photo: Crown Castle